


Loves Me, Loves Me Not

by mizufallsfromkumo



Category: Common Law
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gardener/Groundskeeper Wes, Inheritance, M/M, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-04-12 10:19:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4475693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mizufallsfromkumo/pseuds/mizufallsfromkumo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Travis Marks is an LAPD Detective who inherits a giant estate, including a mansion and it's strict, stubborn groundskeeper/gardener, Wesley Mitchell. What could go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Daffodils

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vanete_druse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanete_druse/gifts).



> It took a little over year to get started, and a month or two of writing to get a chapter out, but it's finally here!
> 
> I finally sat down to write this thing after teasing on and off about it on tumblr. Now, here's the first chapter for everyone who is interested. You guys have no idea how excited I am about this.
> 
> Based of allthatisbizarres' post :http://allthatisbizarre.tumblr.com/post/79398410011/common-law-au-where-travis-comes-into-a-lot-of

Travis Marks has a life that is far from glamorous. 

He lives in an apartment that is medicore.  It’s not falling apart in any way or majorily outdated, but it is hardly state of the art in any way.  It’s not big either.  However Travis doesn’t need big.  It’s just him, and sometimes whoever he brings over for a night, so he doesn’t need a lot.  His furniture is a little mismatched, some good hand-me-downs and some retouched flea market finds.  It’s decorated how he likes it.  It’s might look like a bit of a bachelor's pad, but Travis liked to think he has some good taste. 

He works as a Robbery/Homicide Detective for the LAPD.  Most of his days are spent investigating and tracking criminals down with his partner, David Paek, or Paekman.  There is also quite a bit of chasing involved.  Which is great cardio, but ultimately rather annoying.  In the end though he doesn’t care, as long as justice is served. 

Travis’ dating life is...frequent.  A lot of short term relationship, that lead to the bed instead of anywhere else.  Some people are fine with that, others are not, but he handles it.  Mostly by avoiding those that are not happy, but that is still technically handling it.   

His family life is all over the place.  Travis grew up in foster care.  Living in a total of Eighteen homes, with a wild number of foster siblings and foster parents.  He keeps in contact with some of his old foster moms and a larger number of siblings.  He talks to some more than others, but it’s all good. 

All in all, it’s not a glamorous life, but Travis wouldn’t have it any other way. 

* * *

Travis tapped lightly, in a measured way, on the white table of the interrogation room.  He stared directly at the suspect in handcuffs on the other side of the table.  Just daring him to draw everything out like he had all the time in the world to keep him.  Plus some underlying annoyance. 

The suspect was a man by the name of Alfred Thompson.  The man had had a few run ins with the law in the past, and kind of a shady person in general.  He also happened to by a friend of Travis murder victim, who just so happened to be seen with the victim hours before the time of their death.  The guy hadn’t been a major suspect till he decided to run at the sight of Paekman and Travis.  Running had bumped him to the top of the list.  Alfred was giving the seasoned criminal silent treatment. 

With a sigh, Travis leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.  “We know you with John before he was killed.”  Travis stated.  “We just want to know why.”  Travis tried to make it seem like he’s not the man suspect. 

Alfred keeps his mouth shut.  He shifted a bit in the handcuffs, and tried to relaxed in the whole situation. 

Travis let’s the quiet ticking of the clock fill the space between them. 

“Alrighty then, where were you between 11pm-1am on Tuesday night?” 

There is another pause between them. 

Alfred gave a half cocked grin as he leaned forwards.  “I want a lawyer.”  He said levelly. 

Travis forced a smile as he got up from his sit.  He collected the file he had on Alfred, and made his way to the door.  He opened it in a calm manner, before slamming it closed behind him to show his frustration. 

“First the fence, now this.  Tell me, is it Let Paekman Get All The Glory Day?”  Travis hear David chuckle out from the door observation room behind the glass. 

“You wish it was,”  Travis returned teasingly as he started to walk back to his desk. 

Paekman followed after him, trotting to Travis side with a soft laugh.  “Look on the bright side, he asked for a lawyer instead of just being quiet.  So that means there is a chance he has something to say.”  The Asian man pointed out as they reached their desk. 

Travis huffed.  While Paekman did have a point, Alfred was a shady guy probably trying to cover his own ass, it was still going to be a bitch of an issue.  Plus it still meant, Alfred could be stonewalling majorly.  Travis grabbed the phone on his desk, to inform someone in the public defence office someone asked for a lawyer.  Hanging up, he dropped the file on his desk and plopped down in his chair. 

Lazily he shuffled around his desk.  There wasn’t much for him to do while he waited for Thompson’s lawyer to show up and meet with their client.  Evidence was still being processed, which Travis could do nothing about, except urge them to hurry up.  There wasn’t really anything for them to run down.  Everything was somewhat hinging on what Alfred had to say.  It annoyed Travis a little. 

Turning to his computer, Travis opened his emails to find forensics had finished a report, and the ADA on the case was in need of an update.  Travis opted for the forensic report. 

“Detective Travis Marks?”  someone suddenly asked to the side of Travis. 

The detective turned to find a plucky looking man in suit that looked like it could have cost Travis’ pay check.  They guy had to be in his early forties, with average looks, a roundness to his middle.   He had some kind of wire framed glasses that were borderline corny and a head of thinning brown hair.  A somewhat used, but good quality briefcase was being held in his left hand.  Everything about him gave of the air of lawyer. 

“My name is Hector Campbell.”  The man said politely.  “I’m an attorney for Mr. --” 

“Wow, you got here fast.”  Travis cut him off with a nervous laugh, moving like he was going to get of the chair, but ultimately wasn’t going to do it.   “Alfred Thompson is in Interrogation room two.”  Travis said motioning to the other side of the bullpen, while also trying to look busy investigating. 

“No, Detective Marks, I’m not here for Alfred Thompson.”  Campbell said.  “I’m here to see you.” 

That caused Travis to look back up at the man, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Paekman do the same.  “Why?” he asked cautiously. 

“Before you cut me off, I was trying to say I’m Mr. David Nelson’s personal attorney.”  Campbell said.   

Travis shifted a bit in his seat at the name.  David Nelson was a foster sibling from Travis last home.  He was about four years younger than Travis, and majorly smart.  His parents had died in a car accident, so he was new to the system and scared.  They shared a room together in the house so naturally, Travis took him under his wing.  They kept in contact over the years, ran into each other and some parties.  David got into programing and apps development, but Travis didn’t know much else.  Why was his lawyer there to see him? 

“There are some things I need to talk you about, Detective Marks.”  Campbell continued.  “Is there somewhere private we can discuss them.” 

“Uh, sure.”  Travis said slowly.  He got up from his seat, shooting Paekman a look.  “We can use a conference room.”  He added as he lead the way. 

Travis opened the door to a conference room to find it completely free of use.  He held the door open for Mr. Campbell to enter.  The man did so quickly, hurrying to a table that was shoved just shy of the center of the room.  Opening his briefcase and sorting through some of the files.  Travis closed the door slowly before turning to join Campbell. 

“What is so important that David has to send his lawyer to talk to me?”  Travis said lightly. 

“His last will and testament.”  Campbell stated with grave seriousness.   

“What?” 

“Mr. Nelson died on Monday.”  Campbell said flatly, like it was obvious, why else would he be there.  Or at least, that was until he turned to look at Travis, who was completely shocked.  “Sorry, I thought you knew.” 

“No,”  Travis said slowly.  “I...I hadn’t seen...or heard from him in while...how...how did he die?” 

“Cancer.  I believe it was bone cancer.  Got noticed too late.” 

Travis nodded.  “I had no idea.”  He paused for a moment.  “But what does that all have to do with me.” 

“I’m sorry you found out like this.”  Campbell said with a small apologetic smile before he turned all business like again.  “I’m here on the matters of Mr. Nelson’s will.”  The lawyer reached into his briefcase to pull a folded pieces of paper.  “He named you as the sole beneficiary of all of his estate.”  Campbell stated as he handed over the folded paper. 

Travis took it with a bit of snort.  It kind of felt like it was all some sick joke David was playing on him for having not talked to him in forever.  However as he unfolded the papers, he found there was no ‘Gotcha’ or ‘Psych’ written largely.  Instead it was indeed David’s will, naming Travis as the one to inherit everything he had to his name upon his death.  All signed and dated from some years back. 

He can’t help but stare.  Why the hell did David leave him everything?  They weren’t extremely close.  Travis hardly knew exactly what his foster brother did for a living. 

“Now, most of his company shares will be sold, but you do inherit about twenty percent of what he had.  Which should cover all or most of the taxes for the house and property, if things continue as they are.”  Campbell started talking.  Travis found himself half listening to it all as he soaked it in.  “Now the mortgage and all loans have been completely taken care of.”  Campbell went digging in his briefcase for a moment.  “Here is the current total amount of Mr. Nelson’s back accounts, as well as the total value of his estate, and a list detailing everything in the estate.” 

Travis took the envelopes Campbell handed to them.  He peered at him slightly before opening.  Still half wondering if there will be a ‘Gotcha’ in them.   

“Holy shit, that’s a lot of numbers lined up together.”  Travis said as he opened one.

“Mr. Nelson was very successful.”  Campbell said. 

“And this is all mine?”  Travis asked, in case it was still some sick and cruel prank. 

“Once you sign some papers, and transfer everything to your name, then yes, it’s all yours.”  The lawyer started to pack up his things.  “You can swing by my office,” he said producing a business care from his suit jacket.  “Or we can meet at the house sometime and make it all official.  Just call me. And I am very sorry for your lose.” 

Travis nodded in disbelief of the whole thing.  He watched Campbell grab his briefcase, making his way to the door with a small goodbye and congratulation.   Travis watched him walk out of view before he turned back to the papers in his hand.  He was _rich_.  Like ridiculously, stupid _rich_.    

A soft knock on the conference door, knocked Travis out of his staring. 

He turned to see Paekman peeking his head through the door.  “Thompson’s lawyer just got here, and they need like five minutes with him.”  Paekman informed, before he pushed into the room.  He waited a moment before asking “So what was that about?”  He motioned towards the door in reference to Campbell. 

“I just became a multimillionaire.”  Travis said simply.


	2. Red Hyacinth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So remember when I said this would be up in like a week...yeah that clearly didn't happen. I apologize, I've been rather busy for the last few weeks. I've been busy with job hunting, actually having a job, hanging out with my brother when he came back from college, and helping plan my aunts baby shower. Also, the chapter I was writing was giving me all kinds of issues.
> 
> But whatever, this is out now.
> 
> Red Hyacinths mean sport or play.

“ _You have arrived_.” Parkman's phone GPS stated in a polite robotic manner as the car rolled to a stop.

They stopped just short of what looked like a nice pale dirt and pebble road, the kind rich people had made, that winded up to a an iron gate.  There was a small rock wall which seemed to taper off at some point.  What the wall was more obstructing than actually hiding what was well hidden by the trees that guarded the entrance.  It was low enough to seem inviting, but high enough keep out wandering eyes and the few snoopy neighbors. Which had to be next to no one, the address was about twenty minutes out of the city, and the closest neighbor had to be at least a half a mile from away.   

Travis leaned forward a bit to see if he could get a better view down the road, and he felt everyone else in the car do the same thing.  He couldn’t see much else.  The dirt road curved out of view.

“Are you sure this is the right place?”  Money asked suddenly from the back seat.

“Yup,”  Travis answered without looking back at him.  “Paekman and I looked it up.”

Indeed they had, not long after Travis told Paekman of his sudden, and sizable inheritance.  They pulled up the street view from google maps as quick as they could.  They had the same view they were looking out now, save a black car pulling out of the gate.  After which the two detectives had pulled up the aerial view which merely show how massive everything was.

“Shall we?”  David asked, as the car inched forward.

Travis gave a slightly shrug in reply as he also motioned for Paekman to continue.  The Asian man smiled as he turned the wheel to turn onto the road.  His car bounced a bit from the sudden change in road, but smoothed out eventually.  

Pulling up to the gate, Travis fished out the post it note he had scribbled the code on when he talked to Hector Campbell the night before about meeting at the house to sign everything.  He read the numbers out loud for Paekman to punch in.  There was a beep that sounded positive, followed by the decorative iron gate opening with a slight creak.

Paekman pulled through them slowly, following a few more curves of the road, before there was a collective gasp.

The pale dirt road turned into a circular driveway/round about made of larger flat sheets of rocks that had been laid into concrete.  In the middle was of the circle was a sizable two tier fountain.  The water in the top tier was shooting in to a larger spray of water in the middle, the the bottom had smaller shoots along the bottom.  There was a border of green plants surrounding the fountain at the base.  All well kept and an even length all around.  The driveway itself was lined with thick green bushes with taller flowering trees behind them.

The house, though the correct term was probably mansion, stood proudly in front of it.  There was a spanish style to the house design.  A deep faded red tiled roof with dark wood accents and supports.  The outside was a bright muted yellow color, that was inviting with pale yellow accents.  The windows were all tall and wide, each in a dark frame that stood out from the colors of the house.  The light fixtures were held in similar dark metal.  The corners of the house protruded outwards, while the front door and entrance were pushed back.  Pillars lined what could be classified as a front porch, supplying a balcony for the second floor, and kept the front line of the house even.

There were five shallow steps that line most of the front porch.  A colorful assortment of landscaped flowers and bushes started where they stopped.  Short Palm trees were placed on the end of flower beds by the stairs.  There were a few dark wooden benches on the porch with dark red cushions and two small tables.

Travis let out a whistle as he climbed out of the car.  Everyone else seemed to do something similar as they existed as well.  He knew the place was going to be nice, but he didn’t expect that nice.  David had always been a humble kind of guy as far Travis could really remember.

“Mr. Marks, good to see you again.”  Hector Campbell's voice sounded, knocking Travis from his admiring.  The lawyer was standing on the front porch with a kind grin on his face.  

“Good to see you too, Campbell.”  Travis smiled as he hurried up the stairs to take Campbell’s hand shake.  “Sorry, we ran a little late.”

Campbell waved him off like it was nothing, but it really wasn’t.  “I see you brought some guests.”  The man said looking around Travis, looking a little bit concerned.

“Yeah,”  Travis smiled turning around.  “I hope that’s okay.  I wanted their opinions on the place.  This is my foster brother, Money, my other foster brother, Eric, my foster sister, Maria, and my partner Paekman.”  Travis introduced as the others joined him on the porch.

Hector gave each of them a kind smile as he made sure to shake each of their hands.  Once he was done he turned back to Travis.  “Let’s go inside, and I’ll show you guys around before we signed the papers.”  He said making his way to the large metal looking doors, and pulling them open.

The sight that greeted them carried the same grandness the outside of the house had.  The foyer was a huge open space.  The second floor opened to below in a large circle, with a curve that two staircases held as well.  The railing on the stairs and along the opening of the second floor was a black iron that was mix of a modern and European look.  A fancy looking chandler hung in the center of the the space. The walls were a creamy white, and accompanied with the dark contrasts.

There were archways to other rooms of the house on either side of the foyer.  Each with their own expensive looking, somewhat modern looking furniture.  Through the middle of the stairs there was another walkway that lead deeper into the house.  It also gave a clear view to the pool and backyard.

Hector waited till everyone was done looking around in awe before leading Travis and the group up the stairs.  The second floor was for the most part bedrooms.  All seven of them, including the master bedroom.  Each room was furnished with nicely with basic pretty basic furniture and accompanying color scheme.  Generally all neutral in theme, except the master, which was decorated how David had wanted it.  Three of the six bathroom were also on the second floor.  Each neutral in color and theme.

Going downstairs again, Hector showed them around the living room, a few sitting rooms, David’s home office.  There was a small library, and a gaming room that had been well put together.   They were also shown the laundry room, and garage which held three sports car and Mercedes.  

From there Campbell showed them the back porch and square pool with a circular hot tub.  The backyard was huge and well maintained, with a nice walk through garden full of colorful flowers.  Campbell also pointed out the guest house, which had it’s own little path to house and dirt road.  It looked like a smaller version the the house and no bigger than a small two bedroom house.  He mentioned that was were the groundskeeper lived, how they were currently out of town.

When they returned inside, Campbell let Travis to the kitchen to go over the paperwork.  It was mostly just him explaining what the document was before having Travis sign here and initial there.  It didn’t take longer much longer than ten minutes.

“That should be all.”  Campbell said sorting his papers away, while Travis started at the keys.  “Everything should be sorted and in your name.  If there are any issues call me.” Hector said heading towards the door.  “I left a message for the groundskeeper, he should contact you as soon as he gets back.”

“Thanks,”  Travis said.  He still can’t believe it’s all his now.

Hector give him one last nod and they shock hands one last time before Travis showed him out.  Travis let out a breath as he shut the door.  Everything was final, and it sets in.  He still can’t wrap his head around it all.  The sound of Paekman, Money, and the others all talking knocks him out of it.

Travis turned on his heels to join the four of them.  They were all standing around the area by the backyard doors, looking around more in detail.  

“It’s official, I own this place.”  Travis declares.

Everyone choruses with cheers and laughter.

“So what are you going do with it?”  Maria asked as she leaned on the granite countertops of the kitchen.  “Sell it, keep it.”

“I was kind of planning on keeping it.”  Travis admitted with a shrug.  The whole place is way too much house for him, but god it was like getting his apartment all over again.  It was his.  In his name legally, and no one could take that away from him.  So hell yeah, he wanted to keep the place however impractical it was.  Besides he could afford it...or at least for the time being.  “I don’t think I’ll keep everything, like all the cars and whatnot, but yeah.”

Eric crossed his arms and made a slight face as he thought about it, before shrugged and giving an approving nod.

“It’s a real nice place, _uso_.”  Money said glancing around with the brotherly smile he always gave Travis.  

“Nice is kind of understatement, don’t you think.”  Travis said, glancing over the state of the art kitchen plenty of his foster family would kill for.   “Unbelieveable if more suitable.”

“Does it matter what it is?”  Paekman asked loudly from the dining room chair he was sitting in.  “It’s your place, you’re going to move in and live here, no doubt.  This place needs to be properly christened, if I do say so myself.”  He added.

“Properly christened?”  Travis asked.

Paekman just nodded and got up from his seat with a small humming noise.  “It’s only right?”  He strolled over to the small bar/liquor cabinet area.  “For a house like this, the only right way i can think to do it,”  He said grabbing a bottle from a shelf and turning around, “is to throw an all out party.”

Travis couldn’t stop the wide grin that spread across his face.

* * *

Music was pumping well through the air, and there was a good crowd of people moving to it and having a generally good time.  Travis gave the Dj a thumbs up from his back balcony when she looked up at him.  She gave him a return thumbs up and a smile as she bounced to her own music.  With a grin, Travis turned to enter the house and go back downstairs to join everyone else.

The house was crawling with people.  It was a fantastic turn out considering the party was conceived and planned in just over 24 hours.  Everything had fallen into place.  Travis had invited just about everyone he knew and told them to bring friends, and Money, Eric, Paekman, and Maria all did the same thing.  Travis had a foster sister that was an established Dj and was more than willing to do his party for a next to nothing family/friend discount.  Other foster siblings had lights and speakers, or whatever else they need to make it looked like it wasn’t all thrown together a day before.

And of course, he checked with his neighbors, how few and scattered they were to warn them of the party.  He wasn’t about to get the cops called to break up his party.  Plus he was a decent human being.

Travis smiled widely at people as he passed them, making his way to where everyone was in the backyard and pool area.  A few people recognized him and complimented him on the house and the party.  

Making his way through the crowds of people, he eventually found Paekman hanging around an one bar they had set up, pouring shots.  He grinned widely when Travis came over.  

“What I tell you, great way to christen a house.”  Paekman yelled over the music when Travis was close enough.

“Forget christening the house, this was just a great idea.”  Travis returned, and Paekman laughed.

The Asian man pulled out two shot glasses and filled them with whatever clear form of alcohol he hand in his hand.  He pushed one towards Travis.  “To your new home.”  He said raised the glass.

“Don’t forget the riches, man.”  Travis said pointing at his partner with a grin.  

The clicked glasses before knocking them back.  It burned going down, but in a nice smooth short of way that can only come from something of quality.  Paekman hardly wasted another second before filling the glasses again.  They repeated the action again.  Then a third time, before Travis went to mingle.

He worked his way through the crowd.  Dancing with some people here, and doing shots with others there, and generally making sure everyone was having a good time.  It was borderline crazy party, that’s flashy, but the fun everyone is looking for.  However there was good music and free alcohol, there wasn’t exactly many complaints.  

He’ll admit to being a little tipsy when he climbed up on two a table.  He motioned to his sister to lower the music a bit so he could say something.  

“Evening everyone!”  He shouted once everything kind of shushed.  “I hope everyone is having a good time tonight.”  Everyone kind of cheered and clapped.  “Good to hear.  What do you say we keep this party going as long as we can!”  The cheer was a little louder that time.  “Now let’s turn up that music!”  Travis declared before hopping down from the table.

The music was turned up to its regular volume with a large chorus of cheers and applauding.  Travis smiled and made his way back to the bar where Paekman had been before.  His partner was there, put Travis pulled himself out a set of shot glass and tequila bottle to pour into them.  He knocked back one of them with a satisfied burn.

“Hey!”  A someone suddenly yelled over the music at him.

Travis turned to find a blonde guy in slacks and some button up shirt.  He doesn’t have a clue who the man is.  “Hey!”  Travis shouted in return.  “You having a good time?”

“No.”  The man yelled flatly with a frown.  He cringed a bit at the music like it was giving him a headache.  “I’m--”

“Here!”  Travis yelled, cutting the man over by shoving a shot in his face.  The man looked at him confused.  “It’s a shot, take it!  It will help you loosen up.”

“What?  No, I don’t want a shot!”  

“Fine then.”  Travis shouted before knocking it back.  “If you don’t want to be here just go home.”  

With that Travis took his final shot, slamming it down when he was done, and wandering back into the crowd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Three will be out in probably about three weeks.
> 
> I have a job now so my writing time has been cut some, so let's just shoot for three weeks. If it happens it happens, it if doesn't come to my house and kick my ass.


	3. Lemon Scented Geraniums

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I actually did it in the time I said I would. I probably could have had this out earlier, but I was lazy and didn't write. At least it wasn't like last time when I just had issues all over the place writing. 
> 
> But yeah, I'm starting to figure out my schedule with each week, so hopefully things will get a littler regular.

Something wet hits Travis.

It was the first thing his mind process as he starts to wake up.  

Something wet and slightly cold hits him.

Travis feels like he’s coming out of a dark sort of fog.  It’s all kind of hazy.  Just a weird blankness his mind hasn’t figured out what it means yet.

Something wet and slightly cold hits him in the face.

He started to wake up a little bit more.  His mind starts to work.  He feels warm, like the heat from the sun or a light.  He leans more towards the sun.  Light starts to leak through his eyelids.  But there’s an ache in his head, something poking into his back, and the blackness he can’t shake.  What happened?

There is a hissing noise.  Something wet and slightly cold hits him in the face.  It feels a bit like rain.

Travis groaned in protest at the feeling.  He doesn’t open his eyes or move, everything feels weird.  

The hissing noise sounds again, longer this time.  Travis throught it sound like a house.  Something wet and slighted cold hits him in the face in a stream.  Like someone sprayed him with a hose.

Travis eyes snap open, which is a ridiculous stupid move, because it’s fucking bright as hell.  He groaned and covered his eyes for a moment, before opening them slowly to adjust.  Travis finds himself staring at green where it should be blue and blue where there should be green. There is a figure there too, holding something, probably the hose.

Dressed in what looked like worn jeans, grass stains and a few snares.  They had nice work boots one, expensive looking ones that looked like they could almost pass for new.  The figure was wearing some grey tank top.

More hissing hose sound, and Travis finds himself blinded by water.

“Hey!”  he sputtered, rolling slightly so he could get a better look at the person spraying him.  “What the hell?!”

The mysterious figure with the hose, worn jeans, expensive work boots, and grey tank top, is a guy.  Probably about his height and age.  Relatively pale, save a slight tan on his shoulders and arms that come from working outside.  He wore a straw cowboy looking hat on his head, no doubt to protect his face from the sun.  Travis couldn’t see much of his hair, but he could tell it was blonde.  His eyes were a cold pale blue, glaring down at Travis.

“Good you’re awake.”  The man said with a weird fake cheer.  If Travis wasn’t hungover, yeah that’s what he was, he might get a slight serial killer vibe off the guy.  “Now get of the hydrangeas before I drown you.”  He continued suddenly serious.  He even lifted the hose some, holding the sprayer like it was a gun.

Travis started at him for a moment, before looking down.  He was lying on a bush with nice clusters of flowers.  Also he noticed he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his pants were oddly damp.  He looked back up at the man.

“I’m not wearing a shirt.”  Travis pointed out.

Immediately he was sprayed in the face.  “Observant of you.”  The guy growled.  “Now off, or--”

“You’ll drown me, yeah, yeah, yeah I heard you the first time.”  Travis waved off.

There was another spray to Travis face.

“Alright, I’m going!”  Travis exclaimed and he tried to get up.

He found he was also on top of another bush, and he couldn’t easily get up.  It earns him few short sprays in his face.  Apparently hose man is not a patient person.  Travis growled and shot the man a dirty look, before muttering to himself about how he was hungover.  Eventually he does get to his feet on the others side of the bush.

"There off your hydrangwhatevers.”  Travis growled out.

“Hydrangeas,”  The man corrected as he moved forward to examine the plant for any damage.

Travis waved him off as he stumbled towards the house, try to remember how the hell he ended up passed out in the garden. 

* * *

Travis grumbled to himself as he trekked his way back towards the house.  Still annoyed by his rude wake up call from the guy with the hose.  At least he was drying off relatively quickly, but hell he had a slipping headache.  The bright morning sunshine wasn’t helping it it.

He kicked at a cup laying in the grass as he neared the pool deck, watching it flip and roll towards into the much larger mess by the pool.  The deck looked like a storm had rolled through while there was a party.  Cups were thrown everywhere, including the pool.  A number of them were floating, but there seemed to a good number on them on the bottom.  Napkins were the same.  Bottles laying abandoned on the ground and also in the pool and hot tub.  The furniture both by the pool and on the porch were all shoved about.  Some actually turned over.  Others had cushions missing, either floating in the pool, thrown in some plant, or just laying on the ground on the other side of the porch or deck.  His shirt was tossed over a back of the chair, and he quickly grabbed it and put it back on.

A few people in the back porch/pool area.  Most of which seemed to be passed out awkwardly on a pool chair or against a pillar.  One person was awake in the pool, a younger foster sister of his.  She smiled at him closely and gave a small waves from her seat on the steps.  He returned it with a half smile.  Most of the other people he recognized as well.

Travis noticed Paekman was curled up on an outdoor couch that had been shoved up against the wall.  He grabbed a pillow that was laying on the group near the doors and tossed it at his partner as he opened the door.

A rush of cool air greet him as he walked into the house.  A relief from the morning sun.  It didn’t last long.  The mess inside greeted him shortly after.  It wasn’t as bad as outside, where more of the party had been.  Mostly discarded cups and the sort, plus a tipped over lamp or two.  

“ _Manuia le taeao, uso._ ”  Money’s voice said suddenly.  Alerting Travis to his presence and the smell of eggs.

“Morning,”  Travis returned after a moment.  “My head is killing me.”  He added as he walked over to the kitchen counter.

Wordlessly Money placed a glass in front of Travis.  He poured a green slug smoothie from a blender into the it, that Travis immediately recognized as Money’s Hangover Miracle Juice.  He had it a few times before to know while it’s not pleasant in the least, it totally does the job.  Money also produced two aspirin pills, placing them next to the glass.

Travis doesn’t waste any time.  He grabbed the pills and washed them down quickly with the Miracle Juice.  He let out a sound of disgust once he swallowed.  The Juice never got easier to drink.

Money served him a plate full of eggs shortly after, almost like he was trying to make up for it.  Travis wasted no time eating them, shoveling forkfuls of eggs in mouth to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth.  He was halfway through his eggs when he felt his headache subsiding.

“So, what happened last night?”  Travis asked with a mouthful of eggs.

“The usual drunk craziness.”  Money said, like had been the designated driver who had to put up with shit.  “Partying, dancing, yelling.  At one point you jumped into the pool.”  Well that explained the damp pants.  

“Where’d everyone go?”  Travis asked.  “I thought more people would be laying around.”

“Most of the people left when Lexa finished up.”  Money answered easily.  He shoved the glass of Juice towards Travis, as wordless command to finish drinking it.  Travis did the best he could  “Maria and Eric left a little while ago.  I sent everyone who crashed in the house with them.”

“Thanks.”   

Money gave a nod in reply.

“Hey, top this off, I have to get my partner up and moving.” 

* * *

“I’m telling you Paekman, that gardner could totally be a serial killer.”  Travis complained as he attempted to fish some of the cups, bottles, paper, and glass from the bottom of the pool.  “No concern that I might have been dead.  Only for the goddamn plant I was passed out on.”

Travis and Paekman had taken up the task of cleaning up the back area of the house.  A few of Travis’ foster siblings who had been past out there, had stayed to help.  They either inside helping Money clean and do some damages assessment, or out in front.

“Hydrangeas are kind of delicate.”  Paekman said absently, as he picked up pieces of trash around the patio.  Travis turned sharply to his partner.  “What, my mom has them in her garden.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think you mom would spray some in the face if someone was passed out in them.”  Travis said turning back to the pool again.

“Why does it bother you so much?”  Paekman asked.

“He didn’t even check to see if I was okay.”  Travis exclaimed.

“Maybe he did, you were just passed out and didn’t feel it.  He could have figured you were okay and figured water was the quickest way to get you to wake up.”

Travis grumbled to himself.  Paekman did have a point.  It did take Travis a bit to register he was actually being sprayed by someone.  He blamed being hungover and waking up from blacking out.  Still, it seemed rude.

“Besides, they might just have bad people skills.”  Paekman added after a moment.  “Not in a serial killer way, just kind of a plants-and-I-get-each-other sort of why.”

Travis huffed.  “Oh so being on his plant friend or whatever is probable cause for threatening to drown me with a hose.”

“Do you seriously think he would have tried to drown you?”  

“Hey, you did not see the look on this man’s face.  Or the coldness in his eyes.”  Travis snapped.  Paekman chuckled and rolled his eyes in an overly dramatic fashion.

Travis grumbled under his breath some as a quietness fell over their conversation.  The two of them went about their cleaning.  Conversation would start up between them briefly before dying back down.  Usually it was Paekman teasing him in some manner, or a sudden new complaint from Travis.

It didn’t take too long to collect the trash, except for the trash that had sunk to the bottom of the pool.  Paekman started to pair discarded cushions with chairs, and putting other’s upright, while Travis finished collecting what he could from the pool.  From there, they went to trying to put the furniture back to the way had been before the party.  There was some rearranging.

“Hey, who's that?”  Paekman asked, with a pointing nod of his head.

Travis turned around to look in the direction Paekman was looking.  There was someone walking along the stone and grass path that connected the guest house to the main one.  They appeared to be male.  Dressed in khaki pants and a light blue shirt with sleeves that stopped at just above their elbow.  No doubt ruled up.  The guy had blonde hair and pale skin, but he was generally too far out for to see any detailing of his face.  His hands were in his pockets as he strolled over.

“I’m not sure.”  Travis responded.

The two watched him as he neared.  Travis noticed he was wearing dress shoes, that looked like they had been shined to perfection.  The khakis looked like they were part of a suit, and the light blue shirt was a button up collared shirt.  Something on his right wrist reflected the sunlight, Travis assumed it was watch of some kind.

As the guy grew closer, his face become more noticeable.  Almost instantly Travis recognized him.

“That him,”  He hissed at Paekman so the man wouldn’t hear them.  “That’s the angry hose guy.”

“What really?”  Paekman whispered back as his eyes flickered between the two.  

Travis didn’t get a chance to elaborate.  

“Excuse me, do you know where I can find Travis Marks?”  The guy asked.  His voice was the same, but the tone was different, a hell of a lot politer than when he threatening Travis earlier.

“Um...right here.”  Travis said holding up his hand like he was in class for some reason before turning around.  “I’m Travis Marks.”  He watched the blonde blink at him in subtle shock.  “ _Detective_ Travis Marks.”

“Pleasure meeting you, Mr. Marks.”  The guy said like they totally had never seen each other before.  “Nice to see you found a shirt.”  He added backhandedly as he held out his hand for Travis to shake.  “I’m Wesley Mitchell, I’m the groundskeeper and on site gardener.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Mitchell.”  Travis said with a fake smile.  

He grabbed the other man’s hand roughly and gave it a hard shake.  The blonde only seemed to be slightly bothered by it.  He buckled slightly under the unexpected force, but mostly kept it under control.  

“I’m not for the whole formal ‘Mr. Marks’ name calling, little ‘Downton Abbey’ for me,”  Travis said as he released the blondes hand.  “So you can call me Travis.”

“It’s just general professionalism, _Mr. Marks_.”  Mitchell said in a slightly undermining and challenging tone.  He gave Travis a look they were playing chess or some shit and he so had Travis on the ropes.  The blonde turned his attention to Paekman.  “And you are?”  

“David.  David Paek, Mr. Mitchell.”  David said taking Mitchell’s hand quickly.  “Everyone calls me Paekman.  I’m Travis’ partner on the force, so you’ll probably see me from time to time.”

“Nice to meet you.”  Mitchell said with no trace of bite in his voice.

“So, Wes, can I call you Wes?”  Travis cut in.  Pausing briefly to let the blonde answer before cutting him off.  “Can you tell us what exactly you’re job entails.”

“Yes, I suppose that would need explaining.”  Again the whole sentence came off as a backhanded comment rather than simple conversation piece Wes might have tried to pass it off as.  “I make sure everything runs smoothly here.  The cleaning, pool, and yard services, plus whatever additional services Mr. Nelson required for the house, all went through me.  I, also, am here to assess and tend to minor repairs and such throughout the house that may arise.  I’m in charge of the garden and yard work.”

Paekman let out an impressed whistle.

“Seems like a lot for one person.”  Travis observed.

“It’s really not.”  Wes returned.

“So what if I decided to hire someone else?”  Travis asked.

“You can do that if you want.”  Wes said easily with a challenging and knowing grin.  “However, I doubt you find anyone.”  Travis never wanted to punch someone in the face so hard in his life.  “I should let you two get back to cleaning up after your party.”  Wes said glancing around with a slight look of disgust on his face and acting like he had better things to do than help.  “It was a pleasure meeting you.”

With that Wes turned and started towards the bath to the guest house he lived in.  Paekman and Travis waved at him as he left.  Travis with a fake cheery wave, and Paekman with a more honest one.  

Once Wes was out of hearing distance, Travis turned to Paekman.  “It’s not bad people skills, he’s just an ass.”  Travis said.

“Maybe,”  Paekman said turning back to the furniture, a wide grin on his face. “But, how does the line go, oh, it looks like the start of a beautiful friendship.”  

“Shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Lemon Scented Geraniums mean unexpected meeting (because apparently noting means first meeting).
> 
> Wes is in the mix now. He was kind of in the end of chapter 2, but no his like official in it!
> 
> Also random headcanons that just came from this chapter. Money is a huge health and fitness nut. Like he eats incredible healthy, like half in the protein shake muscle nut, and half serious nutritionist. And he knows all the right things to eat after a hangover, and he's always kind of bin like that. Another one, Paekman made a lot of the jokes that circle around the department still in relation to Travis and Wes.


	4. Cuscutas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TA-DA, the update is a little late this week, but I have everything written out earlier, I just couldn't posted it till today. 
> 
> Still shooting for the new chapter every three weeks, but I think I'm going to be trying for two. I don't know, having a schedules both helps and doesn't help me, so...

It takes Travis a week to completely move in to his new home.  Work didn’t exactly help in making it any bit easier.  He did however use two of his vacation days to get things in order and settle in.  It didn’t take him long to get all of his things moved out of his apartment and into the house.

He handed off most of the furniture from his apartment to an assortment of foster siblings.  Most of the larger stuff went to siblings with new places of their own, and free furniture was free furniture.  His managed to sell a few things from the house he didn’t want, or felt he needed, and listed the others that hadn’t been an instant grab.  

Three of the four cars were sold as well.  He was selling on the lower side of the price range, Campbell assured Travis they had all been paid off.  Meaning Travis could have them sold them for dirt cheap and still made money.  The fourth car he kept listed in the paper and on a few sites online should someone show an interest.

He didn’t see much of Wes in that time.  Which was completely fine.  There was an occasional sighting of the blonde working in the yard, or tending to the fountain in the front.  They didn’t really acknowledge each other.  Wes comes off as a know-it-all, entitled asshole, and Travis can’t fucking stand him.

Travis did however look into hiring someone new.  No one seemed to want the job.  It was either they could never handle the workload, or they’d screw up all of Wes’ hard work, which they didn’t want to do.  And if they did want the job, they wanted a ridiculous amount of money for it.  Didn’t matter how rich Travis was, he wasn’t going to shell out that much money just some some assholes can keep his lawn nice and pretty.  Travis even asked a foster brother of his if he wanted the job, knowing his brother would give him a cut price, but his foster brother didn’t see why he even wanted to hire someone new.

As much as he hated to admit, Wes was right.  He would never find someone to replace him.  He was cheap and did the best job.  There was never a better selling point.  

The detective could just imagine Wes sitting in some fancy chair in the guest house sipping at tea and just radiating that he was right.  Just knowing he was right without Travis even telling him.  It pissed Travis off.

So naturally, Travis decided to prank him as some form of revenge.

He did so by “accidentally” breaking a porch light fixture in an “attempt” to “fix it”.  It was slightly easier said than done.  He shocked himself a few times too many and bent a reasonably nice golf club he found.  But he did it.

“What the hell happened?”  Wes asked Travis showed him his handy work.

"I don’t know, man.”  Travis said easily.  “The light was flickering the other day, so I switched out the bulb and it just kind of…”  Travis made a small explosion sound effect, while usings his hand for a visual.

The blonde gave him an odd look for a moment.  Almost like he wasn’t too sure he should believe what Travis was saying, before he sighed.  “There should be an extra fixture in the shed, I can use to replace this.”

“Awesome.”  Travis smiled out.

“Give me a few minutes to grab what I need, and I should have it fixed in thirty minutes or so.”  Wes said before he walked off to get what he needed from the shed by the guest house.

Travis grinned to himself as he watched the other leave.  He settled on one of the couches while he waited for Wes to return with anything.  

It took Wes about four minutes to return with everything he need.  He seemed a bit surprised to see Travis still there on the porch.  Like David told him what needed to be fixed and left.  Carefully he placed everything down on table by where the light destroyed light was, before asking Travis what he was still doing there.  

“I wanted offer to help.”  Travis said with a shrug.  “I’m rather handy.”

“Oh…”  Wes said slowly.  “Alright.”

Wes handed the box the replacement fixture was in to Travis to open, while he collected a few tools from his tool box and laid them out neatly.  From there, Wes started removing the broken lamp from the wall.  He handed it off to Travis in trade for the replacement.  

As Wes started to work on connecting the wires, Travis started to put his prank in motion.

He snuck a few parts into his pocket, just so they one part short on some things.  Like connector caps, certain screws, and washers.  Wes, of course, had extras in his toolbox, on the off chance something was missing, but he still grumbled to himself about it.  Travis also moved his tools around, or hide them when he handed them back to him.  He acted completely clueless when Wes would ask for something he had hidden.

Eventually Wes started to catch on.  

“Seriously, what are you twelve?”  Wes huffed angrily, as he snatched a screw driver Travis had hidden.  “Go annoy someone else, I can finish up here without your lack of help.”  

Travis hurried into his house, with a smile growing on his lips.  It had gone better than he thought.

That was where it started.

* * *

Mara was a newly promoted detective from the dwindling Missing Person department. Travis meet her passing before, back when she was still in uniform.  However, he ran into her at a bar, and they hit it off.  She was aware of his reputation, but she was in need of a fun night, no real strings attached.

Travis took her back to his place.  Mara had a roommate, and didn’t find it fair to just spring someone on her.  So Travis’ place it was.

She gaped a bit in awe of the house when they pulled up.  Travis gave her a tour of the first floor.  He took her outside for a walk of the grounds and through the garden.  Just to show her around, it was the first real time he did that.  Plus she didn’t seem to mind not immediately going to room for sex.

They stopped at some point in the garden.  Mara turned to face him and leaned in to kiss Travis.  He leaned in to meet her as well.

Suddenly there was soft hissing noise, before both of them were hit with water.

Mara let out a surprise scream as she pulled away.  She attempted to shield herself from the water.  Travis ducked a bit as well as he looked around to see the sprinklers had turned on.

As quickly as the sprinklers had turned on, they turned back off again.  

“Oh my goodness,”  Wes voice suddenly sounded from just short hedge or two over.  He suddenly sprang up from behind the bordering outside bushes.   “I’m sorry, I didn’t notice anyone was in the garden.”  There was something underlying in his tone that screamed he did know someone was in the garden.  “My bad, I apologize.”

Mara flicked some of the water off her hands before telling Wes it was okay.  She stormed off like it really wasn’t though.

“Thanks for that.”  Travis huffed at Wes as he about to turn to follow after Mara.

“You’re welcome.”  Wes said smugly.  

Travis turned back to look at him.  The groundskeeper had a proud little grin, and triumphant expression with his arms cross.  Like he knew he got his revenge of Travis.

Oh...Oh…

It was so on.

* * *

Travis saw an opportunity to get Wes back for the sprinklers when the man working on the edge of the pool.

Wes was carefully squatting next to the pool, with his back facing the house.  Travis’ wasn’t sure what the blonde was actually doing.  He had a service some out to tend the pool every so often.  But knowing what little he did about Wes, Travis figured he was quality checking, or cleaning the decorative tiles that lined the top.  

Either way, he was just a quick nudge away from going to the pool.

Travis grinned to himself as he carefully opened the door to go outside.  From there he carefully snuck up on the blonde.  Years of sneaking around in foster homes, and moving to not alert criminals were paying off.

The detective stopped at a distance, and carefully lifted one leg.  Slowly he raised it to reach Wes.  

With a soft push of his foot, Wes toppled into the shallow end before he could help himself.

Wes surfaced after a moment, with a shocked breath.  He whipped around sharply, however Travis had already started to run back to his home chuckling.

* * *

A bright light pouring through his window, suddenly stirred Travis awake.  Groaning he rolled over to glance at the clock by his bed.

 _4:17 am._  

Travis was about to close his eyes to go back to sleep, when realized something wasn’t right.  There was no way it should be that bright that early, unless he was in like Alaska or some shit.  Travis turned sharply to look at the light that was pouring into one side of his room.  It was way too bright to from the sun.  He listened for a moment and he could hear someone moving around outside his window on the second floor balcony porch.

He threw the covers of quickly, and hurried to the blinds.  Grabbing his gun from it’s place in the nightstand drawer, he made his way to the window.  Carefully Travis peaked through the blinds, only to get blinded by some industrial construction light.

“Fucking Christ.”  He hissed, as he moved to the door that led to the balcony porch.  

Angrily he pushed it open, and looked out.  Wes standing on the third step of a ladder with a paintbrush in one hand, the other examining a the roof stilts and tiling.  

“Good Morning, Mr. Marks.”  He said easily as he looked down to noticed Travis.

“What are you doing?”  Travis asked with a flare of anger.

“Checking and repainting the stilts.”  Wes answered easily.

“At four in the morning?”

“Beat the sun.  You are aware of how hot roofs get, aren’t you?”

Travis grumbled to himself.  “Do you this part right now?”

“Yes.”  Wes said, the corner of his lips pulling up just so.

The detective gave him a fake grin in return, before going back inside.

* * *

“Hey, Wes,”  Travis called as he walked out into the garden, electric bill in hand, where Wes was planting a new patch of flowers.  He walked straight through Wes’ workspace, and stopping just in the middle, so he would have to stop what he was doing.  Mindful of the young new flowers that had been planted, because he’s not that rude, but with just enough disregard to get an angry sigh out of the blonde.  “How did you and David do the electric bill?”

“It’s covered in my rent.”  Wes signed on in a strained calm.

“Oh, so should I expect a check soon, or what?”  Travis asked.

“It’s taken out of my pay.”  Wes huffed.  “I thought that had been explained to you.”

It had, by David’s lawyer Campbell when Travis sighed the papers.  It was also in detailed writing in a contract Travis found in David’s office.  So he knew everything.  He was just getting back at Wes for waking him up at four in the morning for a bullshit reason.

“Alright, I just wasn’t too clear on the arrangement, figured I should ask.”  Travis said with a wide grin like he understood.

“Great, now can you move so I can get back to work.”  Wes growled politely.  

Travis looked down, like he didn’t even notice before.  “Oh, so sorry about that.”  He said.  He didn’t really try to sound apologetic as he moved back out of the area and walked towards the house.

* * *

Travis was late.  Horribly so.  

He had accidentally turned off his alarm instead of snoozing it, only to wake up an hour later and realize his mistake.  He was flying through his house to get ready as quick as he could and make up some of the time.   

Of course there was still the drive into the city, which would probably take twice as long now, since he missed leaving when he usually did.  It was days like these, that Travis cursed living just out of the city.

Shoving a piece of toast in his mouth as he ended his call to Paekman telling him he would be late and to cover as best he could, Travis hurried towards the door.  He grabbed his wallet, gun, badge, keys, and jacket as he hurried towards the door.  Doing the best he could to put everything in their respective places.  

He raced to his motorcycle, only to notice there was a giant truck with what looked to be rocks in the back, blocking his way out.  Cursing to  himself, Travis pulled his jacket on and went in search of the driver.  

They weren’t too far away.  The driver and another two workers were talking with Wes just off to the side of the driveway.  

Travis gave a sharp whistle to get their attention.  “Hey, can you move this truck, so I can leave.”  He called.  One of the men instantly responded and hurried back to the truck like it wasn’t an issue.

Wes just looked at him with sort of fake surprise.  “Oh, Mr. Marks, I didn’t know you were still here?”  He totally noticed, the bastard.

“Yeah you did,”  Travis grumbled under his breath as he walked back to his bike.

The drive moved the truck out of the way rather quickly.  Travis tore out of there, drowning anything Wes might have said out.

* * *

He wasn’t too sure what gave him the idea, or where the hell it even came from.  However once it was in his head is seemed like perfect come back and just put an end to things.  There was no way Wes could come up with something in return.

Travis didn’t realize how it might not be such a great idea once he went back to the house and realized what it meant.

He had bought a rather erotic statue of a couple having sex.  It had been done in a classical style, though was completely modern.  To be honest, though, it wasn’t that out there.  Some parts of it were modestly covered with a sheet, but it was still heavily there.

The next day the delivery man showed up, and there was no going back.  He directed them carefully in the placement off it.  Making it was sure it was just out of view from as much of the back of the house as could be achieved, while still being in perfect view of Wes’ guest house.  He grinned a bit eviling to himself as the crew got everything into place.

Wes appeared as the crew was packing up to leave.  The blonde came racing out the back door of the guest out in complete horror as he looked at the statue.  He turned sharply to look at the house, because he knew it was all Travis doing.

“What is that?”  Wes shouted angrily, pointing to the statue as he stormed over to Travis.

“Art.”  Travis said with a smug grin.  “It’s a real conversation starter isn’t it.”

“There is no way that is art.”  Wes growled crossing his arms.

“Well it is, so deal with it.”  

“Did you have to put it there?”  Wes asked.

“Yeah,”  Travis said crossing his own arms as challenge.  “That’s where I want it, so that’s where I put it.”

Wes glare at him for a few moments, before letting out a loud frustrate huff.  He turned on his heels and walked back to his little house.

Travis turned and strolled back to his own.  A victorious smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup. This chapter goes really well with the song Bring 'Em Out by Hawk Nelson, especially if you picture a montage of Travis and Wes playing pranks on each other. And I don't know why I thought of that statue idea, but I could see Travis doing something like that...
> 
> Cuscutas mean Meaness (because there were no flowers that meant teasing or 'fight me')


	5. Mullein

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I did it, I posted a chapter in two weeks, yay! But it kind of worked out because I'm going to see my aunt and uncle and their new baby this weekend. So the likelihood of me getting anything done this weekend went way down. But I did some writing after work a few days and it wasn't bad. So more. However not sure if I'll get another chapter posted before Halloween (I opened up prompts because I do thinks like this all the time) so yeah.
> 
> Also I think this is one of the longest chapters I've written so far for this story.

“He’s the worst, Paekman.”  Travis complained as they got out of Paekman’s car.  He slammed the car door with slightly too much force as emphasis.  “I can’t stand him.  He’s like the love child of a brick wall, a few rule books, and an intelligent asshole.”

“So, get rid of him then.”  Paekman huffed with an annoyed sigh.

It was what he always told Travis when the his complained about his gardener.  Travis had ranted to him everything Wes had done to get Travis back.  Each time, Paekman always told Travis to just fire him and be done with it.  To which Travis always explained how that wasn’t exactly an option, and keeping Wes was pretty much an economic choice.

“It’s not that easy and you know it.”  Travis replied.

He fell in step with Paekman as he made his way to the hospital entrance.   The victim of their newest robbery case was in the hospital after almost being beaten to death in their own home.  It had been a bit of touch and go for bit, but the hospital had just informed them they were awake and stable.

Paekman gave Travis a pointed look.  “So what’s the big issue now.”

“He started landscaping.”  Travis growled.

“Isn’t that his job?”

“He’s doing it around that stupid statue.”  

Travis had bought the stupid erotic statue to get a rise of his groundskeeper.  Not to mention it was a way for him to get back to him their weird revenge prank war thing.   That was all he had bought for.  Travis didn’t actually like it.

It seemed, for a few days, that the statue had finally put an end it.  That Travis succeeded in bringing an end to everything.  But then Wes presented him with design sketches for a landscaped area around the statue.  Rather detailed sketches complete with flower and plant types.  And of course, Wes presented with the most professional slyest of smiles.

There was no getting rid of the stupid statue now.

Paekman burst out laughing after a moment.  “I still can’t believe you actually bought that thing.”  He chuckled out as he calmed down.  “But what did you seriously expect to happen?”

“I don’t know, that Wes would be so scandalized he wouldn’t walk within ten feet of it.”  Travis shrugged.  “Then I’d get rid of it or return it.  No, he has to go and make it like permanent feature.”

“It’s you’re fault for buying the damn thing.”  Paekman said smugly as they walked through the hospital doors.

“You’re no help.”  Travis grumbled.

Paekman chuckled slightly as they neared the reception area.

An older nurse behind the counter greeted them kindly, and asked if there was anything she could help them with.  Paekman asked for information on their victim while Travis held up his badge for when she asked for their relation before disclosing any information.  She gave them a quick set of instructions on where to find their victim.  They left as she called to inform a doctor they were there.

The conversation turned to being about the case at hand instead of Travis statue troubles.  Paekman ran over the few facts they had and what they could mean.  A doctor greeted them in the halls as they neared their victim's room.  Exchanging names with them before explaining her patient's injuries and giving the standard “don’t get them too worked up they are resting” speech.  Then leaving them to do their jobs.

Mandy Goldman, was a slight woman in her early thirties.  She was short and slight, she looked rather small in the hospital bed, with light hair and a round face.  There was a few cuts on her face, and some bruising on her jawline, as well as her arms.  She gave them a dozy smile as Travis introduced Paekman and himself

Paekman asked her to walk them through what had happened during her attack. Some of it was still a little fuzzy for her, with a shaky detail here and there.  She was able to give some physical details about her attackers, but she didn’t see much of their faces.  Travis asked her if she noticed anything to possible identify a someone.  Mandy stated she remembered seeing snake tattoo on someone's’ arm, though she wasn’t sure which arm it was, but it was still a helpful bit of information.

Travis fished his phone out of his pocket as Paekman dove into questions about anyone who might have know Mandy’s schedule.  Or if she had noticed any strange people around her place.  Travis gestured to tell Paekman he was going to leave to call Kendall to see if she could dig up some possible suspects.

Stepping out of the room, Travis dialed Kendall's number.  After two rings she picked up with a cheery, “Hey, what can I do for ya, Travis.”

“Can you do a quick search in a database for possible suspects, about 6 ft., 230 lb. with a snake tattoo on their arm?”  Travis asked.

There was the sound of keys typing over the phone.  “Anything else?  Something that might be a little bit more helpful.”  She returned.

“No, unless you count someone with a history of robberies or recent parolees as helpful.”  Travis added.

Kendall just made a sound of sorts on the other end of the line.  Travis wasn’t sure what it was exactly.  After a second she asked if there was anything else.  Travis supplied Mandy’s other loose descriptions as he strolled a bit down the hall, but he figured they probably won’t turn up much.  Kendall took note to them before she ended the call and hung up.

Travis tapped his phone against his hand for a bit before he put it back in his pocket.  He turned on his heels slowly to start heading back to Mandy’s hospital room.  He was rather sure Paekman was handling questioning her perfectly fine on his own, so there was no rush to return.

“Sir, please, you need to rest.”  Travis heard someone, most likely a nurse.  “I can not medically advise your release.”

“Then don’t.”  Came a sharp reply that made Travis stop.

Wait, he knew that voice.

“Mr. Mitchell,”  The other voice said, in a frustrated plea.  “Please--”

“I don’t have time for this, I have work that needs to be completed.”  Wes’ voice answered sharply.  

“You are in no condition to be doing anything, Mr. Mitchell, other than resting.  You’re work can wait a few hours for you to get proper treatment”

Travis inched toward the doorway of the room as a silence washed over the argument.  Peeking in slightly, Travis could see it was indeed Wes there, sitting on a hospital bed like he was just going to spring off.  Though it looked like he could possible fall over if he did so.  Wes was having a stare down with a nurse, who seemed to be holding their own under his gaze.

“I refuse treatment then.”  Wes said firmly after moment.  

“Mr. Mitchell,”  the nurse said in yet another frustrated plea.

“Wes?  Is that you?”  Travis said suddenly, alerting everyone to his presences.

Not exactly what he wanted to do.  What he wanted to was get back to Paekman to see anything else Mandy that was useful.  Wes’ well being was hardly any of concern, unless the man died in his yard.  Yet for some reason, he stepping in, standing more in the doorway like he was simply passing by.  Travis figured he was doing it for the nurse’s sake.

Both the nurse and Wes turned to look at Travis sharply.  Wes blinked at him for a second before sitting up a little straighter on the bed.  Trying to make it seem like everything was okay and he wasn’t arguing with the nurse.

“Mr. Marks,”  Wes said in his usual polite, fake cheer, I-hate-you tone, along with a slightly forced smile.  “What are you doing here?”

“A victim in my case is few doors down, we came to ask some questions.”  Travis answered replied leaning on the door frame a bit.  “What about you?  What are you doing here?  Something happen at the house?”

“No, no, it’s nothing.”  Wes answered.  He made it sound like he simply got a paper cut but everyone was acting like he nearly died.  “I possible didn’t drink enough water, and got a little dizzy, but I’m fine.”  

“You had a mild heat stroke.”  The nurse cut in sharply.   They turned to look at Travis and informed, “He had a mild heat stroke.”

Travis raised an eyebrow and looked back at Wes, who was in the process of rolling his eyes.  That was actually rather serious.

“It wasn’t that bad.  I feel fine, okay.”  Wes defense.

“He passed out in front of the people from a lawn service.”  The nurse supplied.

“What the hell were you doing?”  Travis asked with maybe a little more concern coming though than he might have liked.  

“Putting down new mulch around the yard.”  Wes said. Again sounded like it was no big deal and everyone is over reacting. “Which is what I should be doing instead of sitting here.”

“No, you need to rest.”  The nurse said sharply, giving Wes a scolding look.  Wes didn’t seem to be too phased by it, however he did avoid making eye contact with the nurse a little bit.  The nurse seemed to take that as a victory for herself.  “Make sure he doesn’t try anything while I’m gone.”  She said to Travis as she walked out of the room.

Travis gave her a salute, and a small ‘yes ma’am’ as she passed him.

A silence settled in the room.  A slightly awkward one.  Wes seemed a little fidgety on the bed, doing his best to act like Travis wasn’t really there.  While Travis wasn’t sure exactly what he should say or do.  

“So…”  Travis started, drawing out the word for as long as he could.  “You were putting down mulch.”  

Wes pulled his eyebrows together to give Travis a didn’t-we-just-talk-about-this look.  However after a moment he did give a slow nod.

“By yourself?”

“The lawn service team was going to help.”  Wes said.  “However they were late, so I started by myself.  When they showed up a few hours later, I…”  He trailed off, finishing his sentence with a flopping gesture of his hand.

Travis gave a small nod of his head, while trying to hide most of his grin.  That was probably as most of a confession he would probably get out Wes.  It was a sort of a shame the nurse was gone.

“Honestly, it was more like heat exhaustion than a heat stroke.”  Wes added definitely.

“Still going to take the nurse’s word over yours.”  Travis replied cooly.  “Unless you’re secretly some MD, in which case I probably still wouldn’t listen to you.”

“Why is that?”

“For starters, you’re the groundskeeper at my home,”  Travis said pushing over the doorframe and taking a few steps into the room.  “Not to mention the first time we ever meet you sprayed me with a hose after I passed out drunk the night before.”

Wes rolled his eyes at the comment.  “Well, it doesn’t matter, they’ve had me hooked up to this IV for a while now, and I feel fine.”  He said motioned the IV tube in his arm. He started to pick at the ends of the tape holding the tube to his arm.  “I don’t need to be here, I can hydrate myself at home.”

From there, Wes hopped off the bed to feet.  It was more like he slid off than actually any form of jump, he wasn’t really in any shape to spring off something.  His legs buckled a bit when he stood, but Wes was able to regain his balance.  Though it did still cause Travis to take a few quick steps to reach Wes to catch him, but it didn’t seem like Wes seemed to notice.  He started to pull the medical tape off his arms and working on freeing himself from his IV.

“Hey, stop that!”  Travis snapped, reaching out to grab Wes’ arm. “Don’t take...just stop!.”

Wes turned to glare at Travis.

“Look, I know you don’t want to be here anymore,”  Travis started with a sign.  “In fact I’m pretty certain if I handcuffed you to the bed rail, you’d tear the IV out of your arm and used it as a lock pick.”  Wes looked slightly offended at the idea.  Travis just shot him an award winning smile.  “So, I’m going to get a nurse to take the IV out, so you can leave.”

Wes glared at him for a moment before nodding.

Slowly, Travis let go of Wes’ arm, and waited a moment to make sure Wes didn’t go back to trying to free himself.  When Travis was satisfied, he strolled out of Wes room and out to the nurses station.

A young nurse greeted him as he approached.  He quickly informed them of Wes’ situation.  They glanced at the computer, before reminding Travis that is was not advisable that Wes leave.  Travis informed them that Wes would probably find some way to get out there, advisable or not.  The nurse smiled a forced sort of smile as they walked around walked around the counter of the station, informing someone to pull up some papers.

Wes had returned to sitting on the bed.  However, this time he was more on the edge of it.  The nurse cheerily greeting him as they entered his room.  Wes was rather polite to them in turn, once they got over advising him.  

Travis hung just outside the doorway to call Wes a cab.  There was a part of them though that wanted to call up dispatch and have them send over a patrol car.  Simply because that way he would know for sure that Wes got back to his little guest house fine.  And there was the added bonus of it probably pissing Wes off a bit.  However Travis figured a cab was better.  That way Travis wouldn’t owe anyone for having to put with Wes and his entitled gardener ass.

The IV was removed rather quickly. The nurse lead the way back to the station to fill out the necessary paperwork.  Wes following an immediate step behind her, and hardly wasted any time getting to filling them out.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?”  The familiar sounding voice asked.

Travis turned to find the nurse Wes had been arguing with to start with staring at the blonde from the other side of the counter.  Arms crossed and a scowling look on her face.  

“Checking out.” Wes informed.

The nurse turned to give Travis a sharp look.  “I told you to make sure he didn’t do anything.”

“And I did.”  Travis said grinning.  “Mr. Mitchell, here, agreed, that if I helped him check out, he’d go home, drink plenty of fluids, and not do anything for the rest of the day.  Just rest on the couch and take adeasy.  Maybe even read a book, or take a nap.”  Travis informed pleasantly.  “Get some good R and R in.  Isn’t the right, Wes?”  He finished, turning to Wes and giving him a good pat on the shoulder.

Wes looked at him for a moment.  A subtle look of betrayal on his face as he realized the trick Travis had just pulled on him.  “Yes,”  He said turning back to the nurse.  “It’s true.”

“I called him a ride already.”  Travis added, wiggling his phone as proof.  “They should be here in a five minutes or so.”

The nurse made a sound; giving both of them a look.  Almost like she wanted to see either of them admit to a possible lie.  When that didn’t happen, she collected some files and stated she was going to finish making her rounds.

Wes had a slightly victorious look on his face as he returned to the papers before him.  Travis just shook his at the blonde as he watched the first nurse disappear into a room.

Not too long after, Paekman popped out of the same room, staring down at his phone.  He shoved it back in his pocket quickly after, and glanced around the hallways.  It didn’t seem to take him long to find Travis.

“Hey, Travis, there you are man.”  He called happily as he hurried over to Travis.  “Now, I get why you didn’t come back after making a call to Kendall.”

“For your information I trusted you enough to figure you didn’t need my help with Mandy’s interview.”  Travis said, sarcastically taking offence to Paekman’s words.  Paekman rolled his eyes.  “But I also kind of ran into him having a medical crisis.”  Travis added pointing to Wes.

Wes tsked as he handed the second nurse his paper work.  

“Oh, hey...Wes?”  Paekman said turned his attention to Wes.  “What a surprise to see you here.  Everything okay?”

“It was David...correct?”  Wes asked slowly.  Paekman gave Wes a simple nod a smile.  “Everything is fine.”

“He collapsed in the heat.”  Travis supplied.    Barely even batting an eye when Wes turned to glare at him.

“I’m fine.”  Wes said in an underlying cold tone that faded as he turned back to Paekman.  “I’m heading back to the house to drink plenty of fluids and relax for the rest of the day.  Travis even called me a cab.”

“How nice of him.”  Paekman said slowly.

Travis could feel his partner’s eyes on him.  However he did his best to ignore them.

“Well, I should go,”  Wes said.  He took a few steps away from them, inching his way towards the exist.  “The cab is probably almost here.  Nice seeing you, David.”

“Wait!”  Travis called, catching up to Wes in two bounding steps.  “I called that cab for you, and I’m going to make sure it takes you home.”

The detective hooked his arms around Wes’.  Making sure to press it tight to his side, so Wes wouldn’t easily wiggle free and ditch him.  Since he hadn’t called a patrol car to pick up Wes, Travis was going make sure he used it.  And used it for the sole purpose of going back home.  He pulled Wes along.

Wes followed with a sigh.  That or he didn’t have strength to put up much of a fight and was sighing at his fate.  He did turn to ask Paekman if Travis was always that much of a pain in the ass.  

A cab pulled up to the curb as Travis pushed through the front doors.  The driver rolled down the passenger window, leaning over to yell-ask if one of them was Wes Mitchell.  Wes gave a quick yes.  He pulled his arm free from Travis hold, and opened to the door to the back seat.

“Alright, listen, I need you take to him straight home.”  Travis said leaning over to talk to the driver through the open window.  “Don’t take him to any other address but the one I give you.  In fact, don’t even really listen to him.”   Wes gave a frustrated huff from the back seat as Travis gave the driver his address.

The cab pulled away as Travis stepped away from the car.     He watched it make it’s way through the hospital parking lot.

Paekman suddenly whistled behind him.

“Damn, I thought you couldn’t stand him.”  Paekman said with knowing grin.

“What about the case, Mandy say anything else helpful?”  Travis asked, changing the subject quickly.

Paekman just snickered.

* * *

The guest house had a very similar look to Travis’ mansion, only it was like probably like an eighth of the side.  A bright muted yellow on the outside with dark wood accents and a red tile roof.  It wasn’t as fancy as the mansion.  A simple dark wood door with a frosted fan window on the top, with dark metal handles.  The windows weren’t so grand or decorative, just simple house windows with black frame.  

The only really difference was the amount of plants.  For the most part, it seemed Wes had most of the plants potted very nicely on his porch.  But there were a few vines that were creeping around a post and away from the criss-crossing wooden panel along the side.  Nothing looked wildly ill kept.

Glancing down at the take out box he was using as an excuse to check in, Travis took deep breath.  Reaching up he knocked loudly on Wes’ front door, and waited.  It wasn’t too long before Travis heard the twist of the lock being undone.

Wes opened the door a moment later.  He hardly opened it wide enough for Travis to get a good look of the inside of his house.  Just a glimpse of a muted gray color, and a smooth light blue on the walls.  

“Yes?”  Wes asked with suspicious glare.

“Uh...I came to check up on you,” Travis answered.  “Wanted to make sure you didn’t drop dead after releasing yourself from the hospital against medical advice.”

“I’m fine.  Clearly not dead.  And you helped me get released, remember?”  Wes said rolling his eyes.

“I bought some chinese take out,” Travis said, holding up the box.  “I wasn’t sure if what you planned for dinner.  Though you might like something.  I got veggie fried rice, since I wasn’t sure what you liked, figured it was a reasonably safe bet.”  Travis started to babble.  He hardly ever babbled.

Wes made a thin line with his lips.  “I already ate dinner.”  He said plainly.

“Oh,”  Travis said, trying not to sound surprised or disappointed.  

He wasn’t exactly sure why he was surprised.  It was bit late.  Wes wasn’t on a cop’s schedule, so of course Wes ate.

“Well, do you mind taking it, cause I won’t eat it.”  Travis said half shoving it into Wes’ hands.  Forcing him to take it, which he did.

“Thank you for doing that though.”  Wes said after a moment.  

“Don’t mention it.”  Travis said, inching his way backwards.

“And, thanks for everything at the hospital.”

Travis paused for a moment and looked at Wes standing the doorway.  “You’re welcome, Wes.”

Another pause between them.

“Now get off my porch,”  Wes snapped sharply before closing his door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mullein means Health, Good Nature. (This chapter was originally titled Sage, but I changed it because this is a little more fitting I think)
> 
> Also, I don't think Wes would avoid medical care if something was wrong, or serious. I just thing of "minor" stuff, meaning there is something a doctor can tell him do to get better on his own (like drink water to get hydrated), he doesn't see the need for it. Does that make sense?
> 
> I don't know


	6. Bearded  Crepis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I haven't written this in like a month, and I apologize. My first two weeks of November were like crazy busy. My brother came home and it was my birthday. But I did manage to post this to day like I promised...just really, really latish...

Travis became more aware of Wes’ presence after their little run-in at the hospital.  Making somewhat of a point to know what the groundskeeper was doing and where.  Just as a precaution.  So he wouldn’t find Wes dying or dead in his yard, because that would be an annoying hassle.  Or, at least, that’s what Travis told himself he was doing.  Because it sure as hell was not like he was worried about Wes.  

It’s just having someone die on his property, especially from working too hard, was a liability Travis did not want.  Especially if it’s Wes own fucking fault for not being more prepared or even noticing something was remotely wrong.

He made sure he had all of Wes’ emergency contact information.  Just in case.  Wes was carefully water the potted plants on the pool deck when Travis asked for it.  Well, more like demanded, but that was only because Wes was being difficult.

“I’m sure the information is still in David’s office.”  Wes stated as he pointed in the general direction of the office.  “Why are you even asking?”

“Because, Wes, if you decide to almost die in my yard again, I’d like to be able to notify someone of your impending death.”  Travis huffed.  “Now, who is your emergency contact, asshole.”

Wes did eventually give Travis the information.  It took about five minutes of arguing about the matter.  Plus another three minutes of Wes scolding Travis for his manners, which caused another two minute argument about how Travis is rude and Wes was stubborn.  They got there eventually.

He also watched Wes work when he could.  He’s find some reason to be outside.  Like sitting outside to drink his morning coffee, because Wes is apparently BFFs with the sun and is up at the crack of dawn.  Sometimes Travis drags a newspaper and breakfast out there to sit and watch Wes.  Other times, Travis was swim around in the pool, or work on his bike some in plain view of the other.

However, Wes isn’t a stupid guy.  He seemed to catch on to what Travis was doing.

So, Travis started acting interesting in the work Wes was going.  It kind of threw Wes for a surprised the first time Travis did.  Asking questions about it, and talking about things.

“So what are you doing?”  

“Watering the plants.”  Wes answered slowly, his eyes shifting around like he was almost looking for some hidden camera.

“Oh, cool, cool.”  Travis nodded in return.  “Uh...why?”

“Because they need water.”  Wes answered again.

Wes always answered Travis, no matter how stupid of a question Travis spit out.  Though it seemed like most of the time he would get annoyed when Travis didn’t go away.  Which, in all honesty, was not a terrible consequence of talking with Wes.  It wasn’t actually horrible learning what the blonde was doing.  He was rather passionate about his work, there was a fact or two Travis didn’t know.

There was one point, few days after the hospital events, that Travis considered installing security cameras.  

He claimed it was for security when he brought it up to Wes.  He acted like he was trying to figure out where to put them, and asked Wes for suggestions.  But it was really so Travis spy on Wes to make sure nothing happened again.

He decided against it not too long after, because that really seemed like worrying.

Travis was not worrying, he was just covering his bases.

Travis, also, tried to find things for Wes to do inside his home.  Like fix loose floorboards, leaky faucets, or squeaky doors.  Stuff Travis in reality could totally, for the most part, fix on his own, he simply didn’t have much of the time.  Whereas Wes rather did.  Besides he said he could handle quick fixes should Travis ever need something.

Besides, Wes gets to work in air conditioning.

Again, Travis was just trying to cover bases. 

* * *

“Hey, I think a light in the chandelier blew, and I don’t think the kitchen sink is draining correctly.”  Travis said quickly when Wes answered his door.

The blonde blinked at him in response.

Wes opened his mouth, taking in a breath like he was going to say something.  For a moment, Travis thought Wes was going to scold him with a ‘Hello to you too’ before jumping into a lecture on how to properly greet people.  Or at the very least how to not bombard people with conversation when they immediately open the door, because that was probably rude.  However, Wes simply closed it with a sigh.  Probably figured it was a wasted air.

He turned his right wrist to glance at his watch.  He made a face at, bunching his lips to one side of his face in thought.

“Alright,”  Wes huffed lightly as he turned back to Travis.  “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Really?”  Travis asked.

It was late.  Well, like eight o’clock.  But it was late in the sense that most sensible working people had called an end to their work days, and things would be left to the morning.  Which would have been fine.

Neither of the jobs really needed immediate attention.  Okay, well maybe the sink need to be looked at bit.  But the chandelier had other lights that still worked fine.  It was nowhere close to being a real issue.

“Yeah,”  Wes replied quickly.  “Just let me grab a few things.”

“Oh, okay.”  Travis smiled out.  “I’ll go back and see you in a bit, then.”

With that he turned and hurried down the little stone path back to his porch and into his house.  

He hung around in the kitchen while he waited for Wes.   Trying to find something to fill the time while he waited, so he at least look busy.  Completely trying to hide that fact he was totally waiting around for Wes to arrive almost nervously.  Like he was unpopular kid that got the cool kid to agree to hang out.  Which is ridiculous, because Travis is totally the cool kid in any scenario, and he’s a grown man.

Travis knocked the thought of away, and turned his attention to deciding what he wanted to eat for dinner.

It took Wes a few minutes to collect what he needed.  He announced himself which a few light taps on one of the sliding glass doors, before just sort of shoving it open.  Travis could hear the other moving around as he tossed his dinner into the oven.  When he turned around Wes was carrying in a large ladder and carefully leaning it up against the wall, before closing the door.

“Sorry for the wait,”  Wes said like he was half an hour late when he turned back to Travis.

“Thank the lord you’re here, I was seconds away from complaining,”  Travis returned sarcastically.  

Wes rolled his eyes as he walked over to the bar counter.  He peered over top to glance at the sink, which for the most part had almost completely drained since Travis went get him.  Travis watched him as he frowned a bit at it.

“So,” Travis started up.  “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Wes looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.  “Help?”  He asked like it was some bizarre concept.  

“Yeah, I can be pretty handy, and I don’t mind lending a hand.”  Travis answered.  Wes just sort of stared at him.  “Where were you thinking of starting?  ‘Cause I was thinking the chandelier, we just get that over and done with.”  He added with a wide smile.

Wes looked rather surprised by Travis offer to help.  The chances that David ever offered a helping in the past had seemed low, if any.  Wes moved his head a like he was about to object to the idea of Travis helping him.  Since after all Travis pretty much paid Wes to keep things running smoothly, and how dare he ask to help.  However, he paused and appeared realize the benefits of Travis helping out.

That or he figured Travis would somehow managed to worm his way in and it was less stressful to just say yes.  Which was totally Travis’ plan B.

“I suppose we could start there.”  Wes answered with a small sigh.

Travis smiled widely at him, and went to grab the ladder before Wes.  The blonde looked like he once again wanted to object, but realized it was too late as Travis passed proudly by him.  He could hear the blonde muttering behind as he got what he need.

Truth be told, Travis wasn’t going to let Wes fix the chandelier all by himself.  Again for the sake of it being a liability.  Besides, Travis had seen enough movies with one person fixing a chandelier and it ending in them either dangling from it or a destroyed chandelier.  

He carefully set up the ladder just under the blown bulb.  

Wes immediately climbed on to the steps.  “Since you want to help so bad, you can hold the ladder.”  He said like was talking to some overzealous child, or someone extremely unqualified for the job of basically screwing in a light bulb.

“You know, I have actually jumped across a roof tops that were five stores up.”  Travis said like he was half offended.  He, of course, still gripped the ladder and held it steady as Wes climbed towards the top.

“Good for you.”  Travis could almost hear Wes rolling his eyes at him.

“I think that makes me more than qualified to screw in a lightbulb on story up.”

Wes shot a glare down at him.

Travis just smiled back.

He received a huff from Wes in return.  The blonde fell silent after that.

He stopped climbing when he reached the third step from the stop.  Effortlessly he seemed to straighten and balance himself on the ladder.  He reached over and unscrewed the light bulb that had blown.  He examined it for a moment before shoving it in one of the pockets in his slacks, before he screwed in a new bulb.  One that came to life almost instantly.

“Catch.”  Wes broke his silence along with a loud whistle as he started to climb down, holding the bulb out to one side of the ladder.

He dropped it before Travis had hardly even responded.  Luckily the detective caught it.

“You really don’t need to have so many lights on.”  Wes commented as he neared the bottom of the ladder.  “Ever heard of conserving energy?”

“Ever heard of minding your own business.”  Travis returned quickly.

Wes rolled his eyes at the childish remark.  “It doesn’t seem like you’re even remotely using any of them.”  He pointed out.  “Is there a reason you have light on in every room?”

Yes, in fact there was.  Travis was, for lack of a better word, paranoid of the darkness in a big house.  He’s not scared of it, just paranoid.  Especially when he’s by himself, in a giant house.  He didn’t mind the darkness when he was in his apartment or crashing at one of his old foster mom's house with like ten different people inside.  It’s just being along in a dark mansion is rather unsettling.

“I like light.”  Travis said defensively.  “I like being able to see.”

Wes made a small ‘bullshit’ sound as he folded the ladder.  “Your electric bill is going to be through the roof.”

“Hey, last time I checked this was my house, not yours.”  Travis frowned.  He bit down a few other things he wanted to say to Wes.

Wes rolled his eyes and lead the way back to the kitchen, ladder in hand.  Travis followed after him in a bit of a stormy matter.  He tossed the old bulb in the trash slightly rougher than necessary to make a point of his anger, while Wes carefully propped up the ladder on the wall again.   Wes gave a sigh as he grabbed his tool box and came over to inspect the sink more thoroughly.

Travis turned his attention to his dinner in the oven, which he discovered was done.  He pulled it out and tossed it on the stove to cool for a bit.  Turning back to Wes, the detective found the blonde had cleared the sink some and was reaching for the garbage disposal switch.

“Yeah, I already tried that.”  Travis stated.  “Doesn’t help.”  

Wes turned to glance at Travis briefly, looking rather unimpressed.  He flicked the switch on when he turned back.  The garbage disposal made it’s loud whining sound it did when Travis tried it the first three times.  Wes flicked off shortly after.  

“Told you.”  Travis said as he grabbed a fork to start eating.

“Sorry for not wanting to take your word.”  Wes said pointedly.  “Besides I think I have a good idea of what’s wrong.”

“Seriously?”  Travis asked with a mouth full of food.  

“Yes, seriously.”  Wes echoed, before turning around.  “Good god, what are you eating?”

“Chicken parmesan.”  

“That’s a TV dinner.  Why the hell are you making a TV dinner in a state of the art kitchen like this?”

“Because it’s easy and delicious.”

Wes huffed loudly as he turned back to the sink.  “Do you know how bad those things are for you as opposed to a home cooked meal?”  He stared as he launched into a lecture about processed food and eating right.

Long story short, Wes ended up breaking his garbage disposal and fucked up the plumbing in the kitchen some.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bearded Crepis mean Protection. It's stupid, but their idiots!


	7. Purple Pansy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. The holiday's got the better of me and work and stuff. Not sure when chapter 8 will be up, cause Holidays again and I want to do like a Christmas Fic...(it might be related to these cause reasons)
> 
> Also, this chapter brings the T rating into play a bit...at the end...yeah...

Travis didn’t realize what he was doing at first.  It wasn’t too different for him to take immediate notice.  Similar actions, similar motions, similar thoughts.  It never really crossed his mind that anything was different, until he realized he was staring.

Flat-out staring like some horny housewife that was eyeing the pool boy in every TV show there ever was.  

At some point, his _concerned_ watching of Wes working in the yard had turned to complete staring at him.  Travis wasn’t sure when the switch has actually happened.  But if he had to guess, it was within the week he realized Wes wasn’t just going to stupidly pass out in his yard again. Travis had eased up on his watching, at let a few more passing thoughts about Wes’ appearance go by.

It wasn’t like it was hard.  Travis isn’t afraid to admit that Wes an attractive person.  If he saw Wes in a bar and had no idea what he was like, Travis would definitely consider going for it.  Plus it wasn’t like the yard work hurt Wes’ appearance.

However Travis wasn’t sure when passing thoughts about Wes’ body turned into a lustful sort of stare.  But it did.

Travis realized he was doing it again while he was watching Wes some of the palm trees in the front.  

He hadn’t even really meant to stay.  Travis had gone out front to get the paper and go back inside where it was safer (but probably creepier) place to fall into staring.  However, one of Travis recent cases was one the front page, so he started reading.

The article was the usual sort of crime piece article.  It didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already know, or at the very least have an idea about.  The writer was relatively neutral, which is never a bad thing.  So it was no surprise Travis turned his attention elsewhere after a while.  

Elsewhere, being Wes, of course.

Wes didn’t give him too much attention.  Travis was pretty sure he got use to Travis sitting outside and watching him.  He never said other than a polite hello from time to time, unless Travis had spoken to him first.  

The detective watched the groundskeeper go about his work, cutting the sagging, or dying branch from the palm trees.   Watching the muscles in Wes’ arms, or how his gloved hands moved.  The concentration of the blondes face, or the sweat that was forming on his brow.

Wes turned to look at him suddenly.  Amazingly Travis managed to duck back to looking at the newspaper.

“Interesting article?”  Wes asked.

“Yeah, really interesting story about...wild dolphins.”  Travis said as he picked the first headline he saw.  “Really factual.”

Wes gave a hum and nod of his head.  “For the palm trees,”  Wes started asking, “do you want me to cut off all the branches except for the new ones at the top?  Or just trim off the low hanging branches?”

“I don’t care.”  Travis shrugged quickly, before turning on his heels and heading back inside. 

* * *

A suspect threw their drink, as well as their lunch, at Travis when he made a run for it.  Like they expected that to stop Travis long enough they might actually have a chance at running.

That wasn’t the case.  Travis just cursed and bolted right after them.  He didn’t even really take notice of the mess that was made on him till Paekman had them on the ground.   

His shirt was drenched in soda, and covered with nacho toppings.  The shirt was beyond being saved by napkins.  It wasn’t a huge deal, however.  Or it wasn’t, till Travis discovered the extra shirt he thought he had in his desk, was actually dirty as well.

Travis decided to use his lunch break to run home and grab a new change of clothes.

He stormed through the front door, quickly pulling his dirty shirt over his head.  He tossed it on the floor by one of the stairwells.  Of course, it’s just his luck the soda made his skin sticky too.

Cursing, Travis sprinted up to his room and master bath.  He flicked on the showered, and hurried out of his other clothes.  He showered for all about thirty seconds, just enough to get the soda and what not that had seeped through his shirt.  He haphazardly patted himself dry, pulling his boxers back on, before exiting the bathroom.

He tore up one of his dresser drawers for a new pair of jeans.  His jeans hadn’t gotten as gotten the full force of everything, but he figured since he was there.  Reaching into his closet, Travis grabbed the first shirt he felt.

As Travis as hurriedly getting dressed, he had the feeling someone, or something, was watching him.   Just a slight sense of it, like when he wondering if anyone could see through his windows in his apartment.  It was probably more in his mind than anything else.  He shrugged to himself as he pulled on his shirt.

Suddenly there was a loud crashing sound outside Travis’ balcony doors.

Travis jumped at the sounds and turned sharply in it’s direction.  

The sight that greeted him was a ladder leaning up against the the dark railing if the large back balcony.  However, he didn’t immediately see anyone who might be on the ladder.

“Shit!”  He hissed, as he pulled down his shirt and hurried to the doors.  

As he ripped open the doors to the balcony, he heard a bit of a groan.  Wes was pushing himself up into a seating position when Travis noticed him.  The blonde dusted his hands off from whatever dirt was on the balcony with a bit of a face.

“Damn, Wes, you okay?”  Travis asked as he moved to straighten up the ladder.

“Yeah, fine.”  Wes answered quickly, as he moved to get to his feet.  Waving Travis off with a hand as he did so.  “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”  Travis asked again.

Wes growled for a moment as he gave Travis a mean looking glare.  “Positive.  Trust me, it wasn’t as bad as it looks.”

Travis stood the ladder back up, and hurried over to give Wes a quick look over.  Just in case Wes had a concussion or some other injury he hasn’t yet detected.  “What the hell happened?”

“I lost my balance.”  Wes huffed, patting his pant legs free of dust.  “There was a Wasp.”  Wes defended suddenly.  Almost like he expected Travis to find Wes losing balance for no reason odd.  “I moved too quickly to avoid it and didn’t anticipate how it would affect the ladder.”

Travis nodded, biting back a comment about how Wes was lucky he didn’t fall over the railing.  “Alright, well I have to run back to work.”  Travis said taking steps back from Wes.  “Just be careful, man.  Still don’t want to find you dead in the yard.”

With that he headed back inside and left. 

* * *

“What did you do?”  Wes asked, turning to give Travis a stern look.

“Nothing!  Why do you assume I always did something.  I hardly ever use this bathroom.”  Travis defended, throwing up his hands in surrender.  It wasn’t his fault a faucet in one of down stairs bathroom just decided to break and spray water everywhere.  All Travis did was touch it.  “Things break on their own you know.”

“Well quality high-end faucets don’t just fall apart and become water propelled rockets.”  Wes returned.

“Well this one did.”

Wes huffed and rolled his eyes in reply.  He turned his attention to examining the broken faucet, like there was a way to fix it or figure out why it broke.  Travis watched him as he carefully tried to reassemble the the faucet.  But it became rather clear that he wasn’t going to be able to fix it.

“Are you sure you didn’t break it?”  Wes growled as he collected his things.

“Yes, Wes, I’m pretty sure I didn’t break it.”  Travis signed out.  “Why do you keep asking?”

“Well, you did break that light fixture that one time.”  Wes said smoothly, as he slide right into Travis personal space with a step.  “Not to mention you ruined a perfectly good golf club in the process.”

“How…”

“I know everything that happens in this house, Mr. Marks.”  Wes said with a sly grin.  

He moved in such a way that he trapped Travis against the bathroom counter.  He leaned in close to Travis face.  Stopping when he was just an inch from Travis’ face.  Wes’ pale blue eyes burning into Travis, who had no idea what was happening or what to do.  

Then suddenly, Wes was kissing him.  A dirty sort of kiss that was all tongue and pushing his body against Travis and inbetween his legs.  Wes pulled away licking his lips and look Travis up and down like he was going to devour him.

“I know how bad you’ve been.”  Wes said, his hand suddenly cupping Travis.

Travis gasped.  That was a bold move.

Wes leaned in for another dirty kiss as he snapped his fingers.  Suddenly Travis was very aware of the fact that he wasn’t wearing any clothes.  However he doesn’t care, because Wes is kissing him like a just walk out of a porno, and there were already waves of pleasure washing over him.   

Suddenly, Wes sunk down to his knees and Travis let out a gasp that mixed with a moan, as he felt lips wrap around him.

Even bolder.

It all feels so good.  Travis mind could processes anything else other than it was good.

He glanced down at Wes, to find the blonde just staring up at him with Travis dick in his mouth.

Travis suddenly snapped awake.  

Staring up at the dark ceiling of his bedroom, panting slightly.  He didn’t move for a moment as he registered what happened.  Like if he moved there might be some confirmation he wasn’t sure he wanted.  Because, well, that was something new.  

Completely and totally new.

Slowly, he turned his head to look beside.  The bed was empty.  Which was a momentary sense of relief.  It didn’t last too long, because it hit him shortly after.

He had a sex dream about Wes.

“Shit.”  Travis hissed, rolling out of bed for a cold shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Purple Pansies mean You occupy my thoughts.


	8. Pink Roses and Sycamore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me way longer than it should have. The holidays had me busy, and I joined a new gym so I am figuring out that routine. I hope to get back to that new chapter ever two weeks schedule I tried back in like September...

Diana, Travis’ ninth foster mom, swung by one weekend morning, relatively unannounced.  She only called to tell Travis she was coming when she was twenty minutes away, because she got somewhat lost.  

Apparently Money had told her all about Travis’ new fabulous place he had come to inherit. She just had to come see it.  Especially since Travis hardly ever calls her, and she never knows what is going on in his life.  Travis does call her, but it’s not his fault Money calls her seven times more and makes him look back.

Either way, she arrives twenty-five minutes after calling, all smiles and hugs.  She had a potted orchid in hand as well.  Thick green leaves, a stack with two purple and white flowers, and some rocks in the pot.  She presented it as a _belated_ housewarming gift, because she had no idea Travis had even moved, before she demanded a tour.

Travis shows her around some, okay, quite a bit. Giving the tour never really seems to lose it’s charms.  Diana sat down at dinning room table when the tour finished, and Travis got her something to drink.   She started asking Travis how things were, and the two of them got to talking.

Diana left around lunch, with a promise from Travis to call more, or at the very least when something big happened and holidays.

After returning inside to his kitchen, Travis sighed at his housewarming gift on the counter.

He already knew he was going to kill the thing within a few weeks.  Didn’t matter if Diana told him it was rather low management.  Or walked him through the basic steps of how to care for it.  Or if he actually really tried to follow them.  It seemed too delicate.  Too easy for him screw up.  

So he figured giving it to Wes was the next best thing.

It wouldn’t be odd for Wes, as Travis’ gardener, to have it in his care should Diana ever come by again and ask.  Wes had time and know how of how to care for it well.  Not to mention it was his job.

Travis made his way over to the guest house after he built up just enough confidence.  

He had been avoiding Wes some since the the whole dream episode, not that he would admit that though.  The dream itself didn’t bother Travis so much.  It was more the suddenness of it.  And the fact that Travis can’t shake the feeling that Wes would just know about it because he’s telepathic, clairvoyant or whatever.

Wes was out on his little front porch area watering some of the plants with the house when Travis walked up.  Though, drowning them might have been a more suitable term.  The blonde didn’t seem to notice him.  One hand in the pocket of his slacks, the other holding the hose.  Just kind of blankly staring down in the general direction of the water.

“Afternoon, Wes!”  Travis called.

Wes managed to hide the fact that he jumped well enough.  He attempted to hide his zoned out watering with a few sweeping motions over the plants, but it didn’t work so well.  He turned to Travis with a sweeping motion.  “Something wrong, Mr. Marks?”  Wes asked politely.

“No, no, everything's fine.  I just wanted to give you this.”  Travis said easily as he held out the orchid up some.

The blonde looked it at for a moment, before looking up at Travis slightly suspicious.  “Why?”  He asked.

“What, I can’t just give you a flowers like a normal person.”  The detective shrugged with a teasing grin.  Wes blinked at him, before furring his brows.   “Okay, fine!”  Travis huffed after a moment.  “A foster mom gave it to me as a housewarming gift.  And judging by the fact that I’ve only been successful at keeping ferns alive, I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up killing it.  So just take it.”

“You know, it’s not just a flower.”  Wes stated as he carefully put the hose down and dusted his hands of non-existent dirt.  “It’s a Vanda Orchid.”  

“Of course you know the name,”  Travis said absently.

Wes shot a sharp glare at Travis as he took the orchid from him.

“It’s not like that’s a bad thing!  If I ever needed an answer for a flower trivia question I know who to call.”  

Wes rolled his eyes at him.  “Well, it’s nice to know you respect and admire me”  Wes huffed as he glanced over the orchid.  Travis smiled widely at the comment.  If that was how Wes was going to take that, he couldn’t complain.  “And you also think I’m beautiful.”

“What?”  Travis blurted with a slight sinking feeling in his stomach.

Wes turned to look at Travis like he just realized he said something out loud that he wasn’t planning on.  His ears started to turn red, as did his cheeks.  “That’s what it means.”  Wes said quickly.    “The orchid.  It mean beauty, grace, luxury, and purple flowers usually mean respect and admiration.”

“What are you talking about?”  Travis asked, grinning slightly at how flustered Wes was.

“The language of flowers.”  Wes answered, sounding more embarrassed than obvious.

“The language of what?”  Travis chuckled out, crossing his arms.

“Flowers.”  Wes said firmly.  “It’s been around for centuries, but was relatively popular in the Victorian area.”

Travis let out a laugh.

“Okay, I’m going inside now.”  Wes said sharply, turning to his door.  “Thank you for the orchid.”

With that, Wes slammed his front door.

* * *

The Language of Flowers caught Travis’ interest.

It was just suppose to be quick google search.  Just so to see what it was at the basics.   Like a scim over Wikipedia, and glance over a few sites.  To make sure it wasn’t something Wes just made up to cover himself from embarrassment.

However, Travic sort of fell down the rabbit hole.

He skimming of the Wikipedia and web page turned to reading as he grew interest in the history.  All the things flowers meant to people of ancient times, all weird and ridiculous by today’s standards.  Then he found an article about the language and its use in literature and it was sort of downhill from there.

When he found a book online, that was the final nail in the coffin.

Travis has always had an interest in language, ever since he could remember. Any language he could get his hands on, didn’t matter what it was.   He liked learning them and understanding them.  

Literary interest just naturally fit in so smoothly with it.  They went hand in hand to, and just came so easy to him.

It was what he chalked up his emerge into The Language of Flowers, or Floriography.

He stayed up most of the night reading just about everything he could find.  He didn’t even really noticed.  He just sort of yawned, and glanced at his phone to find it was almost five in the morning.  The detective figured out that was a good time to pull back.

Travis passed out the moment he hit his bed.

He woke up at eight in the morning, because Wes apparently thought mowing the lawn at eight in the morning on a Sunday was reasonable.  Travis just groaned and tried to rollover and fall back asleep.

    He was only successful for about forty-five minutes.

Groaning, Travis pulled himself out of bed, if wasn’t going to sleep, then he might as well wake up.  He rubbed the sleep off his face as he made his way downstairs into the kitchen.  Instantly going to make a big pot of coffee that was extra strong.  He never really needed coffee to wake up, but three hours of sleep was really kicking his ass.

Once his coffee was finished brewing, Travis made himself a cup to his liking and went out onto his back porch.  He did it more out of routine than anything else.  Maybe a little bit to smell the freshly cut grass.  Okay, and maybe small part of it was because he wanted to tell Wes 8am on a Sunday is never a good time to mow any lawn, anywhere.    Travis sipped at his coffee as he scanned over his yard for Wes.  He was most likely in the front

However, there was a huge pile of green on the porch that Travis had never seen before.  The coffee hadn’t kicked in enough yet, for him to figure out what from where he was.  He walked over to inspected the pile.  It was a bunch was grass clips, semi-moist looking grass clippings, the appeared to have been dumped there.

Travis made a sound as he sat down in a nearby pool chair and waited for Wes.

The sound of a lawn mower sputtered out about thirty minutes later.  The blonde groundskeeper came by with a bag and a broom five minutes later.  He acknowledge Travis with a simple ‘Good Morning’ and started getting to work.

“Do you have homosexual feelings?”   Travis asked as he glared into his coffee cup at his now cold coffee.  But at least the caffeine had kicked in.

“What?”  Wes asked sharply, and seemed to stop what he was doing.

“Homosexual feelings.”  Travis repeated looking up at Wes.  “Do you have them...for me?”

Wes looked at him blankly for a moment.  Then he opened his mouth to say something but it sort of died in his throat.  “Where is coming from?”  Wes asked firmly, as glared at Travis suspiciously.  

“The pile of grass.”

“What?!”  Wes asked even more confused.  “How…?”

“Grass meant Homosexual feelings or love in Victorian times.  You leave a big pile of it on my porch.”  Travis pointed out a bit smugly.  It was fun to tease Wes like this.  “So?”

Again Wes looked at him blankly.  Like he was processing exactly why Travis just told him.  Travis could see the wheels turning in his head. Then it looked like Wes realized something.

“I see you looked into the language of the flowers last night.”  Wes said knowingly.  

“I did a quick search.”  Travis threw out there with a shrug.  

“You were up all night looking into it.”  Wes countered factually.  

Travis gave Wes a challenging look.  The blonde just crossed his arms, he wasn’t going to back down anytime soon.  Travis threw back the last of his coffee in his cup, doing his best to hide his cringe at how bad it was cold.  “Oh, look at that, I’m out of coffee.”  Travis gasped once he swallowed it all down.  “I have to go pour myself some more.”  He declared as he quickly stood up and walked towards his sliding glass doors.

He could hear Wes chuckling behind him.

Well that sort of backfired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pink Roses means Friendship and admirations. Sycamore means Curiosity.


	9. Jasmine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I'm a week late, but I got a this chapter out before Feb so I'm happy. I have no excuse other than I've been busy with work and family stuff and haven't been able to write much.
> 
> And I'm not terribly sure if this flower matches the chapter but...I kind don't care too much.
> 
> Also this chapter is randomly in Wes POV because reasons.

“He has the mental maturity of preteen.”  Wes complained into his salad.  “But, not like just a normal preteen.  A preteen that thinks they’re amazing because they think they know everything, yet have no actual maturity whatsoever.”

Alex just hummed politely across from him.  Letting Wes say his peace.  She was well aware of how Wes could be.

It was their monthly lunch together, something they had started doing after the divorce wounds had healed some.  Granted it took some time for the awkwardness to pass.  It was to simply catch up and hold onto the care and friendship between them.  Through the meetings are never consistently a month apart, they got together whenever they could.   Wes is pretty sure Alex did it to check in on him and make him open up to things about to her.  She knew he didn’t open up to many people to begin with.  Wes appreciates it.

Especially since David died and Travis moved in.

In fact she was the one who asked about Travis.  Ideal curiosity really.  

The last time they had meet, Wes has sort of just meet Travis and interacted sparling.  Wes’ opinion of the detective were not anything good.  Alex had stressed Wes should at least get to know Travis some more.  After all change was not something Wes swallowed easily.  At most Travis deserved something of a chance.

So she has asked, like anyone would.

Wes had more than a few things to say.

“Of course, then there are moments where it’s like he’s an actual mature adult.”  Wes continued one.  “Moments where I start to think, he might not be that bad.  But then he goes and ruins it.”   He paused for a beat.  “It’s frustrating.”

“I can imagine,”  Alex said simply.

“ _He’s_ frustrating.  But then, it’s like he’s not at the same time…”  Wes commented.  “Which is also frustrating.”

“Yet, you still work for him.”  Alex pointed out as she reached for her drink.

Wes gave a low hum in reply. They had been over why he was still there before.  There was no way he was leaving all his hard work and effort in the care of someone who would pass out in them.

“Not to mention, you seemed very impressed of him when we talked after your little hospital visit.”  She added with a smug grin.

“That was different.  I was dehydrated and delusional, not at all in my right mind.”

Alex rolled her eyes at him.

“What?”  Wes sighed.

“It just seems, to me, that you actually sort of like the guy.”

Wes snorted.  “Please.  I’d like to hit him upside the head with a shovel.”

“I’d like to hit you upside the head with a shovel.”  Alex returned quickly.  “Wes, you just stated that there moments where you didn’t think Travis was terrible, like two minutes ago.  And during your...little rant...you went off on a small tangent about how you actually enjoyed that he was witty and challenging towards you.  Not to mention, how you like that actually taking something of an interest in your work.”

“I know he’s only doing it to cover his concern and worry that I might die in the yard.”  Wes said crossing his arms.  “He’s not fooling anyone.”

“Just admit it, you like him, Wes.”

Wes rolled his eyes and turned away from Alex.  He gave a brief huff before turning back to her.

“Admit it.”  

Alex stared at him knowingly.  Looking Wes dead on, just waiting for him to break.   He hated to admit but Alex was right.

In a way, he had grown to like Travis, slightly way more than he would ever admit to.  Travis treated him way differently than David did.  As annoying as it could be, Wes actually enjoyed the fact that Travis tried to worm his way into his work and makes an effort to hold conversation while Wes did his work.

“Alright, I’ll admit it, I like him.”  Wes huffed.  “But like microscopically.”  He added quickly.  

Alex smile just grew.

* * *

 

Wes was in the process of ironing some of his laundry when there was a loud knock on the door.  He set the iron down, and turned it off, before moving to answer the door.

Part of him already knew it was Travis rocking on his feet or doing or finding something to keep himself busy as he waited.  Wes didn’t have many visitors since he moved in, or at least none that just swings by relatively unannounced.  People come for the mansion, not so much the little guest house.  Still Wes glanced through the peep-hole to find Travis rocking on his feet like he expected.          

Wes unlocked the door, and pulled it towards him to open.  Just enough of an opening for him to stand in.

“Hey, Wes,” Travis smiled up at him instantly.

“Travis.”  Wes replied simply.  “Is there something I can help you with?”

“No,” Travis answered shaking his head.  However then he paused and seemed to think about it for a second.  “Well, in a way yes, but…no, not really.”  He stated sounding slightly unsure of what came out of his mouth.

“Did you hit your head?”  Wes asked.

“Yes, can’t you see I’m clearly holding my head in pain?”  Travis answered by waving his fingers for Wes to see.  “Or how dazed I look?”  He added waving his hands downward and over dramatically rolling his eyes.  “No, I’m fine.  Beside pretty sure this is last place I would wander if something happened.”

Wes hummed.  “You’re probably right.  I’m sure you’d probably wonder up to your bed and go to sleep like an idiot.”

“I like to think I’d have the sense to at least try and call someone, thank you very much.”  Travis huffed.  Wes rolled his eyes, but he did hope that was somewhat true.  “But that’s not why I came here.”  He said waving his hands in the air some, shooing away the previous conversation.  “I wanted to ask you something.”

“And what would that be?”  Wes asked crossing his arms.

“If you could give a tour.”

“I though you already had a tour.”  Wes stated.  “Didn’t Mr. Campbell give you one when you moved in?  Or at the very least you did some exploring, especially since you’ve lived here for a few months now.”  Wes pointed out.  “In fact, I’ve seen you give tours of the place to people, so I know something has happened.”

“I have had a tour—“

“So then why the hell do you want on from me?”  Wes asked.

“Because I had a tour of the house, not the garden or the rest of the property.”  Travis answered slowly.

Wes let out a small ‘oh’ under his breath.

“Look, I don’t know what’s what in there, and it would be nice to have some idea if a foster mom or someone asks me.”  Travis shrugged.  “Besides’ I’ve never really gotten to know you, and we’re like neighbors.  Only I kind of own your house and you work for me…but still neighbors.”

“You do realize you’re a cop who could just look me up.”  Wes pointed out.

"That’s no fun, man.”  Travis huffed with a wide grin.  “Doing that isn’t going to tell me your favorite artist or movie.  It’s just going to tell me if you’ve had a parking ticket or been a arrested.”

Wes rolled his eyes.

“Come on, it will be like a fun learning experience, for both of us.”

Wes raised an eyebrow at that.  “How is it a learning experience for me?”

“I’m not going to let you be the only sharing.  You have see what a cool, lovable person I am, baby.”

Wes looked at Travis as he beamed at him hopefully.  It didn’t sound like such a terrible thing.  Travis just wants to get to know him, and if this was going to be anything like him trying to get Wes’ emergency contact information, it might be best to just give in at the start.

“Alright, fine.”  Wes agreed.  “I have some things to finish up, but I can take you through the gardens in about twenty minutes.”

“Ok, awesome, but I can’t today, I’ve got a family thing to go to.  But sometime during the week or something would be good.  I could pick up something for us to eat.”

“I think I’d rather cook than have whatever fast food you would bring home.”  Wes said.

Travis eyes lit up at the words.

“I guess I can made a dinner for two.”  Wes added with a sigh.

“How does your place, on Friday, at seven sound?”

"Like a decent plan.”

“Great.”  Travis beamed, before he turned and hurried back to his house.

Wes shook his head at him as he closed his door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jasmine means attachments


	10. Mossy Saxifrages and Sycamores

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I did it. I posted this by the deadline I wanted to this time. I'm so happy.
> 
> Totally going to try shooting for a date again, cause that helped.

Friday seemed to roll around a little bit quicker than it usually did, which was not at all a terrible thing.  Fridays are Fridays.

The week served up a rather constant workload for Travis.  Just a steady flow of cases coming.  All in the middle of open-and-shut and rather complex tv cop drama plot.  It kept his mind off his approaching date with Wes.

It wasn’t actually a date  _ date _ , Travis wasn’t actually sure what to call it, actually.  He just settled for date, because appointment sounded wrong, and a meeting too formal.  Granted, dinner and a garden tour did sound a lot like a date, it wasn’t.

Whatever it was, having his mind kept off it might not have been such a great thing as Travis first thought.

As Friday’s work day started to come to a close, Travis realized  _ exactly _ how excited he was about that evening.  It wasn’t like any usual Friday-is-happening excitement, or any of the usual date related excitement.  No, it was like a weird, jittery, giddy excitement hadn’t felt since he was like a teenager.  Which might be odd, but Travis doesn’t have too many home cooked meals everyday, so he chalked it up to that.

Travis got home around the time he usually did, just before 7ish.  He ran upstairs to change out of the clothes he wore to work.  Which were not much different than most of his wardrobe.  It just seemed like the right thing do that.  

By the time he finished changing and heading down starts and to the back patio it was around 7:05.   Which in all honesty wasn’t terrible.  He made way over to the little stone path that connected Wes’ little guest to Travis’.

He lightly knocked on Wes door.  Putting his hands on his pockets as he waited for Wes to answer the door.

A few moments later Wes tore open the door.  “You know you’re almost ten minutes late.”  He said with a slightly angry expression.  

Travis could feel the smile on his face die a little.  “Hello to you too Wes.”  Travis said.  He half pushed his way in, half Wes have let him in begrudgingly.  “You know, most people that’s an acceptable window of arrival.”  He added as he started to look around Wes place.

The foyer almost immediately spills into a large open living area.  The kitchen area was to the right with a small rectangular table on the further side of the room.  A matching sideboard on the far wall.  There was a pair of sliding glass doors, lined with thin white curtains, that let out to a small porch area, that seemed to have been colonized by potted plants.  

To the left was a living room/seating area.  A simple grey couch with lighter grey chairs, and a dark wood coffee table.  A few bookshelves lined the wall close to the main door, paralleling a cabinet with a similar look to the coffee table.

There was a small hallway relatively straight on from the door with two visible white doors, both tightly closed.  Though Travis figured it there was like a third one, since the hallway appeared to wrap around the corning.

All the colors in Wes’ place were muted earth tones.  Cream colors, light browns and soft greens were accents to the light blue and greys that filled the home.  Pictures hung on the wall in simple black frames.

It wasn’t what Travis really expected.  

Travis always pictured Wes as someone with classical, possible borderline old-man, tastes.  Like curve old fashion couch, and plush arm chairs with clawed feet.  Elegant floral designs, with gold lines and fancy handles.  Maybe a plastic cover here and there.  His personality made it seem that way.  But everything in his house is clean, with smooth surfaces and straight lines.  It just sort of fit and made sense.

“I’m not most people.”  Wes growled slightly after a click of the door.  It knocked Travis out of his looking around.

“Yeah, that is for sure.”  Travis muttered to himself.

Wes made a sound like he definitely heard Travis, as he walked into the kitchen.  “Some people do actually value punctuality.”  Wes added as he opened the oven to check on something inside.   Travis attempted to see what was inside, but had no luck.   “Unlike you.”  Wes continued as he straightened up.

“Hey better late than never.”  Travis said easily.

Wes glared at the detective for a moment, like Travis almost made something of a point, a rather good one at that.  But then he rolled his eyes in manner that was perfectly clear that that was no philosophy to live by.  The blonde turned his attention to the few vegetables he had on a cutting board. 

“So,”  Travis started as he snatched a cherry tomato Wes had just cut.  “What’s for dinner?  It smells good.”  

“Chicken Marsala.”  Wes stated matter factly.  “However it’s not ready yet.”  He added, before giving a sharp look at Travis and pointing at the other man with the knife cutting Travis off from saying anything.  Travis stole another tomato half.  “I figured you would be arrive later than you did.”

The darker man chuckled as he plopped the tomato half in his mouth.

He turned on his heels and walked a bit further into Wes’ living and dining area.  Wes didn’t have too much out decoration wise.  Of at least anything flashy.  It all seemed like relatively standard modern bits and pieces.  The coffee table was clear, save a small stake of gardening magazines and a silver little tray.   The orchid Travis had given Wes for safe keeping was resting on the top of the sideboard, near the sliding glass doors.

The table was set perfectly, with the bowls nicely placed in the center of the plates.  Clear streamline glassware placed at in the top right.  Two sets of silverware resting nicely on cream napkins.  Thought it wasn’t the three forks, four spoons, and two knifes layout, Travis half expected to be there, but it was more than the basic fork and knife.

It looks like a date set up...kind of.  If Travis described any of the details about any part of whatever they were doing to anyone, they would say it was a date.  However it’s not a date.  

“Can I get you something to drink?”  Wes asked.

Travis couldn’t be happier about the timing of that question.

* * *

Dinner was finished about ten minutes after Travis arrived. 

While they waited, Wes offered Travis some light conversation and a weak selection of alcohol.  Nothing but some craft beer had in his fridge, and a wine with a name only he could pronounce correctly, because it paired well.  None of the hard liquor Travis wanted in the back of his head.  He was pretty sure Wes had some locked in a random cabinet, or under sink, because he seemed like the kind of person that would name drop some fancy scotch.  

Their conversation didn’t consists of too much.  It was a little awkward at first maybe.  Wes brought of the weather, and then some stuff regarding the property.  It filled the time well enough.  The awkwardness started to fall away when dinner was done.  

Dinner just about blew Travis’ mind.

The smell of the food hardly didn’t even did the taste of it justice.  It was like Wes was some kind food/cooking god that decided to kick it on earth.  It was definitely one of the best meals that Travis had had in his life.  He definitely at a little more than he should have, but it was just so good.  Travis even had some of the wine simply because Wes told him to just try it.  It was pretty damn amazing.

When they finished eating, Wes placed the dishes in the sink with a quick rinse of water.  He dried his hands on a towel and laid it neatly over the back of the dining room chair he sat in.  Folding his hands over the top of his, the blonde asked if Travis was ready for to get a proper tour of the gardens.

Travis made a small comment about how Wes might have roll him he felt so full.  Wes quickly returned with a comment about how it was Travis’ own fault for eating  _ half _ of what he made.  Travis is pretty damn sure that was Wes’ cookings fault, and therefore Wes’ fault, so he huffed and puffed some.  Wes, simply rolled his eyes and pointed out walking around would help as moved to open his sliding glass doors.

The detective followed after him, and it wasn’t half as annoying as it probably should have been that Wes was right about walking around.  It helped.

Wes took Travis around the perimeter of property.  He talked about the forest that sort of surrounded in, that property, the basic types of trees.  There were some bushes and hedges that lined some of the side neighboring properties held.  Landscaped with some variety of colorful flowers, all of which Wes knew the name of, as little sort of gardens.  Wes’ had made a successful attempt to hide what he found to be a rather ugly fence.  

Wes then started to take Travis through the main garden.  Explaining everything little flower, and the stories of the design.

Travis listened carefully the whole time, not that Wes made it difficult at all to listen.  He was passionate about what he did and what he knew, and he was animated about it.  Granted Wes’ isn’t someone who seems dead inside, he had his own weird sarcastic dull way of being animated.  

However watching him listen and talk about plants, was something completely different.  Wes was talking like that one kid in school that got excited about space or science, especially when someone would listen to them.   Travis enjoyed seeing Wes like that.  All lit up like a knowledgeable Christmas tree.

“I can totally see why David hired you,”  Travis commented as Wes finished with the tour in the middle of the garden.  “You are definitely know a lot about gardening.”

“I find it relaxing.”  Wes admitted with a shrug, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“If I hadn’t tasted your cooking, I would could probably say you found your calling with way more confidence.”  Travis chuckled out as they started to make their way back toward their homes.

Wes just hummed beside him in reply.

“Speaking of David,” Travis started out lightly.  It was the first really time he ever really talked about his former foster brother with Wes.  “How did you two meet?”

“Uh…”  Wes started out.  “He was a client of me.  I was his personal and business attorney.”

“You were a lawyer?”

“A while back.”  Wes admitted lightly.

“No wonder I didn’t like you when I first meet you.”  Travis chuckled out.  “I have hardly stand most of them half the time.  But, who knows, maybe I could have tolerated you some.”

There was a small snort of laugh from Wes.  

“So why did you stop being a lawyer to become a groundskeeper?”  Travis asked.  “Too much for you?  Your firm have shitty morals?   You realize you were fighting for the wrong people?”  He listed out all the reasons lawyers changed courses in shows and movies in with a hint of playful tone in his voice.

Wes stopped walking.  “It just wasn’t for me anymore, I need a change of scenery.”  Wes answered simply. 

However there was something about it that seemed rehearsed.  Like he had said it often to everyone that asked to get them to stop asking, and it was reason enough.  Like there was a way more loaded answer behind it he didn’t want to share.  His face was rather blank and neutral as well.  

Most people might not notice any of it and take it was the answers.  Others might catch on to the hidden answer and realize that was where to stop and just take the answer.  A few might see right thru him, but do Wes a favor and not say too much else.   Not Travis thought.  He noticed and now he was curious.

“Really?”  Travis asked blinking at Wes. 

Wes didn’t immediately answer.  “Yes, Travis, really.”  He said flatly as he started to continue walking.

“Because it doesn’t really sound like it.”  Travis continued.  

“Well that’s what happened.”  Wes returned quickly, as he picked up his pace some.  

Travis stayed close on his heel.  “Did you something you kind of regret?”  There was a hiss and growl of a ‘no’ from Wes as he kept up his pace.  “Did you ruin someone else's career without meaning to?  Did someone ruin your career?”  The detective kept asking.  “Did you get kicked of the bar?  Or do something illegal?”  Travis gasped suddenly.  “Did you get fired?”

Wes picked up his paces.

“Trust me, I’m not going to judge you for anything you might have done.”  Travis stated easily, because he wasn’t going to.  His own record wasn’t exactly spotless.  “I mean it’s not like you like you killed anyone.”

Wes whipped around sharply after that.  Travis almost walked right into him.  “God, Travis, just let this go!”  He ground out like all his guards were up.  “It doesn’t matter, and I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why?”  Travis asked defiantly. 

Part of it was generally stupidity.  It was becoming blaringly clear that he should stop asking.  Another part of it an attempt to Wes a bit riled up he’d possible just say what it was.  The last part just wanted to the slightest reason why Wes didn’t want to tell him and he’d stop.

“I can not want to talk about things, you know.”  Wes returned.

Before Travis knew, the two of them were in the middle of an argument.  Travis kept pushing.  There was nothing he could think of Wes doing that could be so terrible the blond didn’t want to talk about.  

Wes kept pushing back defensively.  Say have it was none of Travis business to know.  He was allowed to keep things to himself.  Not to mention there was no legal reason or obligation for him to tell Travis.   

It was a stupid argument.  However, neither of them refused to back down.

They were so caught up in their argument they didn’t notice the sprinklers turned on, until the water hit them five seconds later.  Wes stopped mid-shout, and sucked in a sharp breath at the feeling of water.  

“This is your fault!”  Wes shouted again.

“My fault!”  Travis yelled back.  “How is this my fault?!  You’re the one in charge of the fucking yard and sprinkler system.  If anything it’s  _ your _ fault!”

“If you had just dropped the whole issue of my career change, we wouldn’t be out here!”  Wes returned angrily.  He started ducking through the water, making his way towards the controls.

“Well, it would be the same if you just told me something!”  Travis growled, following after him.  He wasn’t about to just let Wes go.  “It doesn’t have to be much, just  _ something _ .”

“Still your fault.”  Wes said defiantly as he reached the sprinkler controls and turned them off.

Had the two of them not just been arguing, Travis might have laughed at what happened.  Because it was pretty ridiculous. But all he can to do is return the glare Wes was giving him.

With a huff, he stormed off pass Travis, with a very curt goodnight.  

Travis did the same thing in the opposite direction.  He didn’t realize he was heading in the completely wrong direction of his house at first.  With a growl Travis turned around sharply and heading back in the direction of his home.  Wes seemed to have realized it was the same thing, and turned around himself.

“My house is that way.”  The both growled at each other as the passed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mossy Saxifrages means affection and Sycamores mean curiosity (I couldn't find a flower for fighting or arguing). So Yeah, I will leave with angst...but trust me it doesn't too last long.


	11. Purple Hyacinthes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a month to update. I just didn't get to writing when I should or could have. (I feel like this story is staring to die on me some and I'm trying to keep it alive.)
> 
> Anyway, I'm taking a break from working/thinking about this story for week, in hopes till will give me new energy to write it.

Travis found himself awake up at three in the morning.  Sprawled out on the couch with the TV still playing old 90s sitcom reruns softly.  

The laughter of the live studio audience was not what woke him up.  No, he just simply woke up for no apparent reason.  He could feel it.  A sense of wakefulness settling in at some inconvenient time.  He frowned at his phone when he checked the exact time.

He groaned to himself as he pushed himself up to a seating position. 

Rubbing the fleeting sleep out of his eye, Travis remember how he ended up there.

After changing out of his clothes from the sprinkler fiasco on his date-that-was-not-a-date with Wes, Travis had gone downstairs to watch whatever he could find.  He settled for old sitcom reruns at some point.  To calm himself down some, because going to bed angry isn’t something he enjoys.

And, maybe, to slightly (childishly) wait for Wes to come and apologize.

Which looking, back Travis realized was the most ridiculous thing.  But he was angry and stubborn at the time, he wasn’t just about to admit the whole argument to be his fault.   Even when he knew it was.

Travis hadn’t even wanted much of answer.  All Travis had wanted was the bare minimum as to why.  Nothing more than “I did something wrong,” or “went against morals”, or “I failed.”  Something that wasn’t the rehearsed answer.  A blanket of a reason not to touch the issue.  But Wes didn’t know that.  As far was Travis was probably concerned, the blonde probably figured the questions would never stop.

Sighing, he got up from the coach and headed to the kitchen.   Grabbing a cup from a cabinet he got himself a glass of water.

Travis half watched the old sitcom reruns as he sipped at his water.  

He could feel it gnawing at him. In the back of his mind.  His curiosity and his want to know what Wes was hiding.

After a while he gave in.

He grabbed his jacket, wallet and keys and headed out.

* * *

The station was considerably less busy at three in the morning that it was during more normal hours.  

No one questioned him when he walked there the door.  Just a minor greeting from one of the uniforms that was manning the front desk, as they motioned him through.  Travis gave them a quick nod and wave in return.

He hurried down the hallway towards the elevator.  Brushing past the handful of uniforms and other night-shift personnel that were walking the halls.  He gave a quick ‘hey’ to some people he knew.  A few asked him as he passed if he has some late night revelation, or break an a case, in reply.  Travis laughed out an answer of ‘sort of’ in return.

Reaching the elevator he thankfully didn’t have to wait long for it to arrive.  Hurrying in he pressed the button for the floor where Robbery/Homicide as located.

Hardly anyone was in Robbery/Homicide, save a handful of detectives working on their cases.  

Travis made his way to his desk, and flipped on his computer.  Once it was ready to go, he didn’t waste any time typing in Wes’ name.

He had attempted to look into Wes once before within the first week of their meeting.   An attempt to see if there was something on the blondes record, or if he really was who he said he was.  Paekman, however, had talked him out of it. Pointing out that David himself had no doubt gone through the process of background checking Wes, and even if there was something, Wes had gotten his life in order.  

Travis had never tried to do it again, well until that moment.

None of the search results in that come up for Wes’ name actually matched Wes’ description or age.  

It wasn’t exactly a relief.  Lack of an arrest, didn’t exactly mean Wes didn’t do anything, or took a public fall for something or someone.   As far as Travis was concerned, whatever happened could have been shoved and buried under a rug and complicated wording, instead of an legal action.  

Travis switched to searching DMV recorders.  

Wes’ information wasn’t overly hard to find then.  There wasn’t much there that Travis didn’t ultimately know.  The only thing that was relatively “shocking” about the information there was Wes listed as divorced.  

From there, Travis went looking through the court system and records.  As a lawyer Wes was without doubt going to be somewhere in there, and he was.  Granted everything was just over 7 or so years old, there was more than enough stuff there.  Nothing there was overly damning in the least.

But then he came across the name Anthony Pauda.

The detective vaguely remembered hearing the name from the news years ago.  It wasn’t anything close to big news.  Travis didn’t remember any of the details of the story.  Just the name popping up in the news every so often.

Travis scanned over the information he could find.

It was a case against the state for an assault and robbery.  Wes was listed as his defense attorney.   Anthony was found guilty in the end.

The court record didn’t have much information regarding the case, so Travis did some more digging into it.

Immediately recognized the names of the lead detectives.  Moore and Hills were not known for quality case work, nor did they look to far into anything.  Travis wasn’t surprised to find nearly all of the evidence was circumstantial, and Wes had gotten about half of it thrown out.  

The more Travis looked into it, the worse it seemed to get.

Taking to google, he found he news articles had vague details, just enough for Travis to get a general idea.

Anthony and Wes had lost the case, and Anthony got sentenced to a minimum of five years.  Wes made moves to have the ruling overturned and the case retried.  

Then...Travis found the reason.

Thinking back on the argument from the night before, it all just made since.

With a sigh, he sank back into his chair and stared at the screen.  He felt like a bit of jerk.

* * *

Wes answered the door in simply grey t-shirt and black sweatpants.  Both looked rather crumpled.  His blonde hair was at all sorts of odd and unusual angles.  He looked like he had been started awake by Travis’ knocking.

No doubt he cashed on his couch waiting for an apology to come from Travis.

It came, just about twelve hours after the argument.

The blonde rubbed his face with one of his hands before he glanced around his front patio.

Travis was out of view.  Figuring the blonde might not want to immediately see him after everything that happened.  Whatever emotions the blonde might have been feeling, Travis wasn’t exactly ready to ignite them, or have Wes turn him away.  So he had knocked on Wes’ door and hurried away just out sight for Wes, but he could still see Wes clearly.

Wes leaned of his door way some, glancing around some.  No doubt trying to see if there was reason for the knocking, or if he had imagined them.  He took a few steps out onto the door, to no doubt peek around the building, causing Travis to tuck out of sight for a brief moment.  

With what appeared to be a visible sigh, the gardener turned back.

He was at the doorway when he stopped and turned.  Noticing the small potted purple Hyacinth flowers Travis had bought.  Travis watched as the other man started at the planet for nearly half a minute.  He then moved towards it, reaching for it slightly.

Travis couldn’t see what Wes was doing anymore.  His back was to him, completely blocking anything he might be doing with the planet, or the envelope resting in front of it.  Yet judging from the fact, that he didn’t immediately start to be ripping the little note where Travis scribbled out an “I’m sorry”, Travis took that as he cue to approach.

“Hey,”  Travis said softly as he neared Wes.

Wes jumped slightly at the sound of his voice.  Tightening in on himself before he turned around to face Travis.  “Jesus Christ!”  He snapped.  Then he blinked at Travis.  Wes took a breath to calm his nerves.  “Travis,”  He acknowledged.  “I assume this is from you.”  Wes motioned towards the little potted plant with the card.

“Yeah,”  Travis returned levely.  “Purple Hyacinthes mean ‘I’m sorry’ among a collection of other things.” The darker man said stuffing his hands in his leather jacket.  “Figured it was a good way to apologize for last night.”

Wes glanced down at the card in his hand and the plant.  “No, it’s fine...sort of.  I could have reacted better.”

“No no no,”  Travis returned hurriedly.  “I shouldn’t have pushed.  I didn’t know then, sorry?”

Wes looked at him confused for a second.  Mouthing Travis’ statement of ‘I didn’t know then’ to himself.  Then he realized what it could possibly mean, and everthing about him seemed to drop.

“Moore and Hills are two of worst detectives I know.”  Travis added like it was some sort of comfort.  Though it was something Wes knew, or at the very least figured out.  “He seemed like a decent kid, that should have never happened to him.”

“But it did,”  Wes added in a small voice.  It was distant, but raw sounding.

Travis wasn’t sure what to say.

After a moment, Wes swallowed and seemed to collect himself.  “You want to come in talk.” He said motioning to the door.

" Sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Purple Hyacinthes mean "I'm sorry" (according to google, cause the site I usually use had nothing for apologizing) Either way, angst is the next chapter...

**Author's Note:**

> Daffodils mean new beginnings.
> 
> So yeah, that's the first chapter, not too much happening just yet, but yeah. Also a lovely shout out to Benadrylthegoodstuff (watanuki_sama), cause you were always there in every bit of the hype.
> 
> The next chapter will be out when I finish chapter 5, hopefully by the end of next week.
> 
> If anyone is interest, here is a playlist for this, here: http://8tracks.com/mizufallsfromkumo/loves-me-loves-me-not  
> and a movie poster thing here: http://mizufallsfromkumo.tumblr.com/post/80093967502/loves-me-loves-me-not-a-romantic-comedy-about  
> and the "trailer" post : http://mizufallsfromkumo.tumblr.com/post/120362150712/mizufallsfromkumo (contains some spoilers)


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